medwireNews: A study of more than 8 million people supports the possibility that patients with type 2 diabetes could have an increased risk for Parkinson’s disease.
As reported in Neurology, Thomas Warner (University College London, UK) and colleagues identified more than 2 million people with type 2 diabetes in the English national Hospital Episode Statistics and found they had a significant 32% increased risk for a subsequent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease when compared with over 6 million people without diabetes.
The association, which was independent of factors including age, sex, and economic deprivation, was strongest in younger patients, with diabetes conferring a 3.81-fold increased risk for Parkinson’s disease in those aged 25–44 years, compared with a 1.18-fold increased risk in those aged 75 years or older.
The researchers suggest that genetic factors common to both conditions “may relatively exert more of an effect” in younger patients, whereas “the association in elderly patients may be the consequence of disrupted insulin signaling secondary to additional lifestyle and environmental factors causing cumulative pathogenic brain changes.”
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