Brief Report

Perceived imbalance and risk of Parkinson's disease

  1. Xiang Gao MD, PhD1,*,
  2. Honglei Chen MD, PhD2,
  3. Michael A. Schwarzschild MD, PhD3,
  4. Giancarlo Logroscino MD, PhD4,
  5. Alberto Ascherio MD, DrPH1,4,5

Article first published online: 7 JAN 2008

DOI: 10.1002/mds.21919

Issue

Movement Disorders

Movement Disorders

Volume 23, Issue 4, pages 613–616, 15 March 2008

Additional Information

How to Cite

Gao, X., Chen, H., Schwarzschild, M. A., Logroscino, G. and Ascherio, A. (2008), Perceived imbalance and risk of Parkinson's disease. Mov. Disord., 23: 613–616. doi: 10.1002/mds.21919

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Nutrition, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts

  2. 2

    Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

  3. 3

    Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

  4. 4

    Department of Epidemiology, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts

  5. 5

    Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

*Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 26 MAR 2008
  2. Article first published online: 7 JAN 2008
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 28 NOV 2007
  4. Manuscript Revised: 2 NOV 2007
  5. Manuscript Received: 14 AUG 2007

Funded by

  • NIH/NINDS. Grant Number: R01 NS048517
  • Intramural Research Program of the NIH
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Keywords:

  • perceived imbalance;
  • Parkinson's disease;
  • prospective study

Abstract

We prospectively examined associations between perceived imbalance and Parkinson's disease (PD) risk in the Health Professional Follow-up Study (HPFS), and Nurses' Health Study (NHS). We included 39,087 men and 82,299 women free of PD at baseline (1990) in the current analyses. We documented 449 incident PD cases during 12 years follow-up. Subjects who reported difficulty with balance before 1990 (baseline) were 1.8 more times likely to develop PD, relative to those who reported no balance difficulty (pooled multivariate RR = 1.8; 95% CI: 1.3, 2.5; P < 0.0001). When we further examined associations between perceived imbalance at baseline and PD onset during different time periods, we found a significant elevation of PD risk only during the first 4 years of follow-up. This result suggests that the imbalance may in some cases be an early sign of PD, and may represent the onset of motor symptoms although they have not been clinically recognized. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society

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