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Findings from a retrospective cohort study revealed that individuals with osteoarthritis are more susceptible to the development of Parkinson disease.
Individuals with osteoarthritis (OA) are at higher long-term risk of developing Parkinson disease (PD), according to findings published in Arthritis Care & Research.
Researchers hypothesized that individuals with OA might be at higher risk of developing PD based on literature reporting that the peripheral inflammation associated with OA may cause neuroinflammation in the brain, leading to the neurodegeneration associated with PD. The current study was the first large-scale, population-based, longitudinal follow-up study to suggest a link between OA and PD.
The investigators recruited participants for an OA group and a comparison group from a nationally representative sample using Taiwan’s Longitudinal Health Insurance Database from 2005. The OA group was comprised of 33,360 patients who were aged 50 to 64 years and who had OA in 2002-2005, while the comparison group was comprised of 33,360 age- and sex-matched randomly sampled participants who did not have OA.
Using the Kaplan-Meier method, researchers generated the participants’ PD-free survival curves. They estimated the effect of having OA on patients’ subsequent risk of PD by applying multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analysis.
Findings from the study showed:
Researchers concluded that OA is associated with an increased risk of developing PD. Clinicians treating patients with the disease should be vigilant of this finding when administering care, as early motor symptoms of PD like short stride and slow movement may be masked by OA-related mobility impairments.
“Coexisting osteoarthritis and Parkinson’s disease can additively increase the risk of falling. Moreover, osteoarthritis-related mobility impairments may mask early motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease,” said senior author Shin-Liang Pan, MD, PhD, of National Taiwan University, in a statement. “Health professionals need to be alert to the potential link between these two diseases.”
Reference
Feng SH, Chuang HJ, Yeh KC, Pan SL. Osteoarthritis is associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease: a population-based, longitudinal follow-up study. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). Published online June 8, 2021. doi:10.1002/acr.24708