Objective:
To explore the relationship between smoking prevalence and Parkinson’s Disease (PD) incidence from 1980 to 2018.
Background:
Animal studies suggest nicotine may be protective against dopaminergic neuron loss. Over the past five decades, global tobacco smoking prevalence has declined to variable degrees in different regions worldwide. While the decline in tobacco smoking has yielded undeniable health benefits, the reduction in nicotine consumption has been thought to be linked to an increase in the incidence of Parkinson's disease. Despite correlational studies associating years of smoking with Parkinson's risk, to our knowledge, none systematically isolated trend effects across diverse populations, ages, and sexes.
Design/Methods:
Utilizing the Global Burden of Disease data, regression models assessed the correlation between Parkinson's Disease Incidence (per 100,000 individuals) and smoking prevalence (percentage of smokers). The regression analysis considered smoking prevalence, sex, age, and country (China, Germany, United States) from 1980 to 2018. All variables were tested for significance. The coefficient for smoking prevalence was the focal variable.
Results:
After controlling for other variables, the significant coefficient of smoking prevalence (-9.53) indicates an inverse relationship with Parkinson's incidence (p-value < 0.0001).
Conclusions:
Epidemiologically, these findings suggest a correlation between a reduction in nicotine consumption and increased Parkinson's risk in populations, possibly due to the protective effect of nicotine on dopaminergic neurons. Considering adverse health outcomes associated with tobacco smoking, exploring safer nicotine administration, primarily through targeted interventions for populations at higher PD risk, emerges as a plausible avenue for preventing Parkinson's disease.