Objective:

To investigate the risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in relation to early life well water and agricultural settings.

Background:

The need to identify modifiable risk factors for PD is urgent given the failure to identify neuroprotective therapies for PD. The long prodromal disease period of PD likely indicates that early-life risk factors may be critical for understanding disease risk.  Existing literature is limited when it comes to investigations of early-life exposures and their association with PD. To bridge this gap, we investigated the relationship between early-life exposures and PD risk, focusing on rural risk factors.

Design/Methods:

We obtained data from the Parkinson’s Environment, Diet, and Lifestyle Study which included 385 prevalent PD cases and 609 controls in the Minneapolis metro area. Early-life exposure was defined as exposure at the residence where the participant resided for the longest duration prior to reaching the age of 20. We modeled early-life exposures (well water and farm-living) in logistic regression models, adjusting for age, sex, race, and cigarette use (ever/never smoking). As a comparison analysis, we explored PD risk in relation to late-life exposure to pesticide and well water.

Results:

Growing up on a farm was associated with a 1.70 greater risk of PD (95% CI 1.26-2.29). Early-life exposure to well water as a primary drinking source was associated with a 1.61 greater risk of developing PD (95% CI 1.18-2.20). We found no significant association between our late-life exposure to farm-living (OR 1.43, 95% CI 0.79-2.63) and well water (OR 1.95, 95% CI 0.97-3.94).

Conclusions: