2025 American Academy of Neurology Abstract Website

Zain Nadeem¹, Obaid Rehman², Eeman Ahmad³, Muhammad Bilal Sardar¹, Aimen Nadeem⁴, Syed Inam⁵, Hamza Jamil⁶, Sheharyar Raashid⁵, Justin Nolte⁵
¹Department of Medicine, Allama Iqbal Medical College, ²Department of Medicine, Services Institute of Medical Sciences, ³Department of Medicine, Fatima Memorial Hospital College of Medicine and Dentistry, ⁴Department of Medicine, King Edward Medical University, ⁵Marshall Neurology, ⁶Army Medical College

Objective:

We aim to identify cardiovascular mortality trends in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in the US stratified by age, sex, race, and region, and compare them to cardiovascular mortality trends in the general population.

Background:

PD is a common neurodegenerative disorder, and existing evidence links it to cardiovascular mortality.

Design/Methods:

Death certificates from the CDC-WONDER database were examined for adults aged ≥65 years. Crude rates (CMR) and age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) per 100,000 persons were calculated, and change in AAMR was determined via annual percent change (APC) and the average APC (AAPC) using Joinpoint regression.

Results:

From 1999 to 2020, a total of 138,151 cardiovascular deaths occurred in individuals with PD. The AAMRs decreased moderately till 2002 (APC: -3.25), then sharply till 2014 (APC: -5.43), but increased thereafter till 2020 (APC: 1.77). Males had higher AAMR than females, and the AAPC differed significantly from the general population. Non-Hispanic (NH) Whites displayed the highest AAMR (16.14) while NH Blacks or African Americans displayed the lowest (9.65). AAMRs also varied substantially by region (West: 16.64; Midwest: 16.40; Northeast: 15.59; South: 13.12). Rural regions exhibited a higher AAMR (16.34) than Urban regions (14.88). The AAPC for cardiovascular deaths in PD differed significantly from those in the general population in the West and in urban regions. Most deaths occurred at nursing homes or long-term care (43.85%). The adults aged ≥85 years exhibited an alarmingly high CMR (53.04), and the AAPC differed significantly from the general population.

Conclusions:

We observed overall decreasing trends in cardiovascular deaths in adults with PD from 1999 to 2014, which increased thereafter till 2020. Highest mortality was exhibited by males and NH Whites, residents of the West and urban areas, and older adults. Focused policies should be implemented to reduce cardiovascular mortality in adults with PD in these high-risk populations.