Parkinson's Disease Epidemiology
Prevalence
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease 1)
Parkinson's disease (PD) affects 1-2 per 1000 of the population at any time. 2).
Prevalence and Cost of Care for Parkinson's Disease in Luxembourg
The analysis was based on individual patient-level data collected by the national healthcare insurance in Luxembourg during 2007-2017, which covers over 95% of the resident population. People with PD were identified based on drug reimbursement profiles. Cost of care was estimated according to a comparative analysis of the healthcare resources consumed by people with PD compared with an age- and sex-matched control group.
Schmitz et al. determined a PD prevalence of 928 per 100,000 individuals aged 50 years and older in 2016, higher in men (1032 per 100,000) than in women (831 per 100,000). The total mean cost of care for PD was estimated at €22,673 per patient per year in 2016, with the highest costs being associated with long-term care (69%).
This was the first attempt to estimate the prevalence and cost of care of PD in Luxembourg. The work demonstrated the usefulness of routinely collected data in Luxembourg for such analyses. The study confirms the significant burden of PD to the healthcare system, especially on long-term care 3).
Incidence
Crude prevalence of PD has been reported to vary from 15 (per 100,000 population) in China to 657 in Argentina in door-to-door surveys 4) 5)
During the last 4 decades, the crude annual incidence rates of PD ranged from 1.5 per 100,000 population in China in 1986 to 14.8 in Finland through 1968 to 1970 6) 7).
Age
PD prevalence is increasing with age and PD affects 1% of the population above 60 years 8)
PD is less common before 50 years of age and increases steadily with age thereafter up to the ninth decade. The decline among the most elderly seen in some studies probably results from the very few people in this age group and may also reflect diagnostic and ascertaining difficulties.
A recent study showed that the prevalence in Yonago City, Japan, increased from 80.6 (per 100,000 population) in 1980 to 117.9 in 1992, but that the age- and sex-adjusted prevalence decreased from 103.9 per 100,000 to 99.5. There was no significant difference in incidence between 1980 and 1992, although the age-adjusted incidence in those under 55 years of age in 1992 was lower than in those under 55 in 1980. This study suggests that the increased prevalence might be due mainly to the aging of the population 9)