| Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disor-der that mainly affects the middle-aged and elderly. Progressive loss of mo-tor function occurs in the patients with PD, leading to both financial and mental burdens to individuals, families and society. PD is considered as a multifactorial disease, resulting from the effect of genetic susceptibility, life-style and environmental factors. The association of lifestyle and environ-mental factors with the risk of PD is not very clear, although many studies regarding the association have been performed.Objectives To assess the association of various lifestyle and envi-ronmental factors with the risk of PD, as well as intensity of the association, thus providing new epidemiological information on the etiology of PD.Methods A hospital based case-control study was carried out on125patients with PD confirmed by the UK Brain Bank criteria. The cases were from neurological clinics in some cities in China, mainly from Peking Union Medical College Hospital.92control subjects were recruited from the rela-tives and companions of patients (including but not limited to PD) as well as the volunteers from communities. Information on demographics, lifestyle and environmental exposures was obtained through in-person interviews with structured questionnaires. Univariate logistic regression analysis was used to estimate crude odds ratios (ORs) and95%confidence intervals (CI) for each factor. Stepwise multivariate logistic regression was then used to find out the independently associated factors of PD among the factors that appeared significantly associated with PD in univariate analysis or were demonstrated to be important in other previous studies. P<0.05was con-sidered statistically significant in our study.Results Univariate analysis revealed significant protective effect of green tea drinking, smoking and vigorous activity to PD. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that green tea drinking (>10cups/week) decreased the risk of PD (OR>10cups/week=0.25,95%CI:0.10-0.60), whereas green tea drinking (≤10cups/week) was not significantly associated with PD(OR≤10cups/week=0.95,95%CI:0.42-2.11). A dose-dependent protective ef-fect of PD in green tea drinkers existed additionally (P for trend=0.008). Multivariate analysis also revealed that smoking (>10cigs/day) was a signifi-cant protective factor for PD (OR>10cigs/day=0.30,95%CI:0.11-0.83), whereas smoking (≤10cigs/day) was not significantly associated with PD (OR≤10cigs/day=0.78,95%CI:0.31-1.98). During the age of26to35, compared with vigorous activity (<1hours/week), vigorous activity (5-10hours/week) reduced the risk of PD (OR5-10hours/week=0.31,95%CI:0.12-0.80), whereas vigorous activity (1-4hours/week and>10hours/week) was not signifi-cantly associated with PD (OR1-4hours/week=0.48,95%CI:0.22-1.05; OR>10hours/week=0.44,95%Cl:0.19-1.05). However, a dose-dependent in-verse association of vigorous activity with the risk of PD still existed in our study (P for trend=0.035). The only factor that was demonstrated to in-crease the risk of PD in our study was head trauma (OR head trauma=2.42,95%Cl:1.07-5.48). No significant association was found of coffee drinking, alcohol intake, pesticides, organic solvents, welding, brazing, flame metal cutting, soldering and body shape with the risk of PD. Conclusion We demonstrated the protective effect of PD in green tea drinkers (>10cups/week) and smokers (>10cigs/day). Vigorous activity (5-10hours/week) during the age of26-35also reduced the risk of PD. Head trauma increased the risk of PD. |
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