Heart Diseases/epidemiology* ; Humans ; Parkinson Disease/drug therapy* ; Propolis

Parkinson's disease is a chronic debilitating condition, the prevalence of which has not been fully established in Papua New Guinea. We describe a cluster of 9 cases of the disease, restricted to two generations of one family, and the key ideas and beliefs held within the family regarding disease aetiology. Many of the concerns and feelings of guilt expressed by family members were alleviated following supportive listening and culturally appropriate counselling, explanation and advice from trained health professionals assisted by bilingual family facilitators. This is the first time that such a family has been reported in Papua New Guinea and may warrant more detailed assessment. Addressing patient and community perceptions of disease aetiology should be at the heart of health promotion initiatives and counselling.
Cluster Analysis ; Developing Countries ; Female ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; New Guinea ; epidemiology ; Parkinson Disease - diagnosis ; Parkinson Disease - epidemiology*

Validation and Standardization of neurobehavioral instrument in Korean occupational setting has not been studied ever. This study tried to validate the newly developed computerized psychomotor tests, Neurobehavioral Tests for Occupational Screening (NTOS). Male patients with Parkinson's disease(n=12) and male workers who never exposed to occupational neurotoxic materials and didn't have neurologic disease(n=21), performed some tests from NTOS; simple reaction time, choice reaction time(2 choice), and finger tapping(both hands). In simple analysis, difference between patient group and worker group was significantly great. Adjusted for age and education years, simple reaction time and finger tapping(both hand) were statistically significantly different between two groups(p<.05). Choice reaction time was also different(p<.1) but error frequency of choice reaction time test was not. Generally, this results showed NTOS could detect impairment of psychomotor function. But insensitive results of choice reaction time was partly due to small sample size and confounding variables and so required future study and refinement at improvement of NTOS.
Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) ; Education ; Fingers ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening* ; Parkinson Disease* ; Reaction Time ; Sample Size

A low prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) has been reported in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region. The genetic causes and clinical features of PD in this region have been poorly described. Very few reports have examined the availability and access to evidence-based quality care for people living with PD in this region. We reviewed all publications focusing on idiopathic PD from SSA published up to May 2016 and observed a prevalence of PD ranging from 7/100,000 in Ethiopia to 67/100,000 in Nigeria. The most recent community-based study reported a mean age at onset of 69.4 years. The infrequent occurrence of mutations in established PD genes was also observed in the region. Treatments were non-existent or at best irregular. Additionally, there is a lack of well-trained medical personnel and multidisciplinary teams in most countries in this region. Drugs for treating PD are either not available or unaffordable. Large-scale genetic and epidemiological studies are therefore needed in SSA to provide further insights into the roles of genetics and other etiological factors in the pathogenesis of PD. The quality of care also requires urgent improvement to meet the basic level of care required by PD patients.
Africa South of the Sahara ; Age of Onset ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Epidemiology ; Ethiopia ; Genetics ; Humans ; Nigeria ; Parkinson Disease ; Prevalence

Oro-pharyngeal dysphagia is a common symptom in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and related disorders, even in their early stage of diseases. Dysphagia in these patients has been underdiagnosed, probably due to poor the self-awareness of the conditions and the underuse of validated tools and objective instruments for assessment. The early detection and intervention of dysphagia are closely related to improving the quality of life and decreasing the mortality rate in these patients. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the characteristics of dysphagia, including the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and clinical symptomatology, in patients with PD compared with other parkinsonian disorders and movement disorders. The management of dysphagia and future research directions related to these disorders are also discussed.
Deglutition Disorders ; Dystonia ; Epidemiology ; Humans ; Mortality ; Movement Disorders ; Parkinson Disease ; Parkinsonian Disorders ; Quality of Life

Dopamine transporters (DAT) uptake neurotoxic substances such as 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP) in the dopaminergic nerve terminals and may confer susceptibility to cytotoxic effects of neurotoxic substance. The association of a variable number tandem repeat polymorphism in the DAT gene with Parkinson's disease (PD) in a Korean population was studied. The 10-copy allele was the most common, accounting for 77.2+ACU- and 81.6+ACU- of alleles in PD patients and control subjects, respectively. The rare 11-copy allele was more common in the patients (odds ratio +AD0- 2.5, 95+ACU- confidence interval +AD0- 1.1-5.7, p+ADw-0.02). It is suggested that the 11-copy allele of the DAT gene may confer susceptibility to PD for some patients in Korea.
Aged ; Alleles ; Carrier Proteins/genetics+ACo- ; Case-Control Studies ; Comparative Study ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genotype ; Human ; Korea/epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Age ; Minisatellite Repeats+ACo- ; Odds Ratio ; Parkinson Disease/genetics+ACo- ; Parkinson Disease/epidemiology

Dopamine transporters (DAT) uptake neurotoxic substances such as 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP) in the dopaminergic nerve terminals and may confer susceptibility to cytotoxic effects of neurotoxic substance. The association of a variable number tandem repeat polymorphism in the DAT gene with Parkinson's disease (PD) in a Korean population was studied. The 10-copy allele was the most common, accounting for 77.2+ACU- and 81.6+ACU- of alleles in PD patients and control subjects, respectively. The rare 11-copy allele was more common in the patients (odds ratio +AD0- 2.5, 95+ACU- confidence interval +AD0- 1.1-5.7, p+ADw-0.02). It is suggested that the 11-copy allele of the DAT gene may confer susceptibility to PD for some patients in Korea.
Aged ; Alleles ; Carrier Proteins/genetics+ACo- ; Case-Control Studies ; Comparative Study ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genotype ; Human ; Korea/epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Age ; Minisatellite Repeats+ACo- ; Odds Ratio ; Parkinson Disease/genetics+ACo- ; Parkinson Disease/epidemiology

Exposure to manganese (Mn) is associated with neurobehavioral effects. There is disagreement on whether commonly occurring exposures in welding, ferroalloy, and other industrial processes produce neurologically significant neurobehavioral changes representing parkinsonism. A review of methodological issues in the human epidemiological literature on Mn identified: (1) studies focused on idiopathic Parkinson disease without considering manganism, a parkinsonian syndrome; (2) studies with healthy worker effect bias; (3) studies with problematic statistical modeling; and (4) studies arising from case series derived from litigation. Investigations with adequate study design and exposure assessment revealed consistent neurobehavioral effects and attributable subclinical and clinical signs and symptoms of impairment. Twenty-eight studies show an exposure-response relationship between Mn and neurobehavioral effects, including 11 with continuous exposure metrics and six with three or four levels of contrasted exposure. The effects of sustained low-concentration exposures to Mn are consistent with the manifestations of early manganism, i.e., consistent with parkinsonism. This is compelling evidence that Mn is a neurotoxic chemical and there is good evidence that Mn exposures far below the current US standard of 5.0 mg/m3 are causing impairment.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Healthy Worker Effect ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Manganese* ; Models, Statistical ; Neurobehavioral Manifestations ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Occupations* ; Parkinson Disease ; Parkinsonian Disorders* ; Welding

OBJECTIVETo explore the association with cigarette smoking for Parkinson's disease (PD).

METHODSOne hundred and fourteen PD cases and 205 controls matched on gender and race were recruited from ongoing PD prevalence survey and identified at the neurological clinic of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Face to face questionnaire interview was carried out and data on smoking and alcohol consumption were analyzed in a population-based case control study.

RESULTSWith never-smokers as the reference category, we observed reduced risk for PD among ever smokers (OR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.30 - 0.79) current smokers (OR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.23 - 0.86) and ex-smokers (OR = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.30 - 0.96). When comparing with non-smokers, the ever smokers stratified by years of smoking had an inverse association with those whose smoking history longer than 20 years (OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.18 - 0.70) and an mild protective association with those who smoked less than 20 years (OR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.35 - 1.07). Those who had quitted smoking for more than 20 years were less likely to have the disease than never smokers, and those who had quitted for less than 20 years were least likely to have PD. Those current smokers were still least likely to have the disease. Significant inverse gradient with pack-day smoker (trend P < 0.05), and the inverse association for cigarette smoking and PD were found not bing confounded by alcohol consumption.

CONCLUSIONThe inverse association between PD and cigarette smoking and history of cessation was found. Further studies need to provide biochemical evidence on the relation between smoking and its protective effect on PD.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Case-Control Studies ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Parkinson Disease ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Smoking ; adverse effects ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo formulate the classification criteria of disability weight for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) in China and to evaluate the disability weight of AD and PD in population over 60 years old in Beijing.

METHODSBased on the criteria of Global Burden of Disease (GBD), a seven-grade disability classification was used to develop a new disability classification criteria for AD and PD in terms of Delphi method in China. Using the data from epidemiological survey for AD and PD in Beijing in 1997 and new criteria, mean disability weights of AD and PD in population over 60 years old in Beijing were obtained.

RESULTSThe mean disability weights of Alzheimer's disease was 0.40 in population over 60 years old who received treatment in Beijing and 0.52 in those without treatment while the mean disability weights of Parkinson's disease were 0.30 in the patient receiving treatment and 0.23 in those without treatment.

CONCLUSIONDifference between the result of this study and the data of GBD study in the mean disability weight for AD and PD was noticed.

Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Alzheimer Disease ; epidemiology ; China ; epidemiology ; Cognition Disorders ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Cost of Illness ; Disability Evaluation ; Disabled Persons ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Parkinson Disease ; epidemiology ; Recognition (Psychology)