Childbirth and Delayed Parkinson's Onset: A Reproducible Nonbiological Artifact of Societal Change

Background Uncontrolled studies have reported associations between later Parkinson's disease onset in women and a history of giving birth, with age at onset delayed by nearly 3 years per child. We tested this association in two independent data sets, but, as a control to test for nonbiological...

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Published inMovement disorders Vol. 35; no. 7; pp. 1268 - 1271
Main Authors MacAskill, Michael R., Myall, Daniel J., Shoorangiz, Reza, Anderson, Tim J., Pitcher, Toni L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.07.2020
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
Age of Onset
Brain research
Child
cohort effects
Cohort Studies
epidemiology
Female
Humans
Male
Movement disorders
Neurodegenerative diseases
New Zealand - epidemiology
Parkinson Disease - diagnosis
Parkinson Disease - epidemiology
Parkinson's disease
Pregnancy
sex differences
sex hormones
Women
New Zealand
cohort effects
epidemiology
Parkinson's disease
sex hormones
sex differences
pregnancy
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Summary:Background Uncontrolled studies have reported associations between later Parkinson's disease onset in women and a history of giving birth, with age at onset delayed by nearly 3 years per child. We tested this association in two independent data sets, but, as a control to test for nonbiological explanations, also included men with PD. Methods We analyzed valid cases from the Parkinson's Progressive Markers Initiative incident sample (145 women, 276 men) and a prevalent sample surveyed by the New Zealand Brain Research Institute (210 women, 394 men). Results The association was present in both women and men in the Parkinson's Progressive Markers Initiative study, and absent in both in the New Zealand Brain Research Institute study. This is consistent with generational differences common to men and women, which confound with age at onset in incident‐dominant samples. Conclusions Despite being replicable in certain circumstances, associations between childbirth and later PD onset are an artifact of generational cohort differences. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Bibliography:Nothing to report. MacAskill, Anderson, and Pitcher are employed by the University of Otago. Myall and Shoorangiz are employed by the New Zealand Brain Research Institute. The authors have jointly received funding for other projects in the past 12 months from the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand, New Zealand Brain Research Institute, Canterbury Medical Research Foundation, the University of Otago, and Brain Research New Zealand, Rangahau Roro Aotearoa.
No other funding was obtained to carry out this specific project.
Relevant conflicts of interest/financial disclosures
Funding agencies
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0885-3185
1531-8257
DOI:10.1002/mds.28135