Jan. 2, 2012 Demographics and clinical factors appear to be
associated with survival in patients with Parkinson disease
(PD), and the presence of dementia is associated with a
significant increase in mortality, according to a report in the
January issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives
journals. Although Parkinson disease is a common
neurodegenerative disease among the elderly, there are
conflicting data on the survival rates of patients with this
disease, according to background information in the article.
Allison W. Willis, M.D., from Washington University School of
Medicine, St. Louis, and colleagues conducted a nationwide
retrospective cohort study of 138,000 Medicare beneficiaries
with incident Parkinson disease who were identified in 2002 and
followed up through 2008. Sex and race "significantly predicted"
survival, the researchers note. Patients who were women,
Hispanic or Asian had a lower adjusted risk of death than white
men. During the six-year study, 64 percent of patients with P