Abstract Details

Determine if age at Parkinson disease onset (AAO) affects mortality.

AAO is a variable of uncertain significance. Previous studies show conflicting results regarding whether AAO affects mortality or not. Few PD mortality studies have examined large study cohorts and evaluated a large PD cohort with prospectively collected data on baseline disease characteristics. We report follow-up data from the Trondheim PD cohort, a cohort followed by one movement disorder expert for more than 20 years at St. Olav’s Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.  By the end of October 2019, the cohort contains 1276 participants (60 % males), of these are 566 no longer alive.

We sorted data into 3 groups, group A, AAO < 45 (EOPD), group B, AAO 45-60 and group C, AAO> 60. We conducted Kaplan-Meier survival analysis to estimate survival curves. Mortality rates in the general Norwegian population were used to calculate standardized mortality ratios (SMRs). The  groups did not differ with respect to duration from disease onset to initiation of medication nor side effects.

There was a statistically significant difference in the median survival time between the groups, group A 28.6 years (23.1 -29.8) (p<0.001), group B 20 years (18.3-21) (p<0.001), group C 12 years (11.1-12.8) (p<0.001). There was a statistically significant difference in SMR (observed-to-expected mortality ratio) between the groups. Group A had SMR 6 (4.4-8.0) compared with 3.3 (3-3.7) and 1.8 (1.7-2) for groups B and C respectively.

EOPD patients had the longest median survival time. However, mortality rate is six times higher in EOPD patients versus two times higher in late onset PD patients compared to the age- and gender matched general population, suggesting that early onset PD life expectancy is reduced to a greater degree than late onset PD life expectancy.