title: Prevalence of Parkinson's disease in the elderly: the Rotterdam Study.
abstract: We assessed the prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) in a general elderly population in the Netherlands. The study formed part of the Rotterdam Study, a population-based door-to-door study, and included 6,969 persons 55 years of age or older living in a suburb of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. All participants were examined, and those who either had at least one possible cardinal sign of parkinsonism at the neurologic screening, reported that they had PD, or were taking antiparkinsonian drugs were invited for further evaluation. The prevalence of PD in this population was 1.4% (1.2% for men, 1.5% for women). Prevalence increased with age, and prevalence figures were 0.3% for those aged 55 to 64 years, 1.0% for those 65 to 74, 3.1% for those 75 to 84, and 4.3% for those 85 to 94. The corresponding age-specific figures for men were 0.4%, 1.2%, 2.7%, and 3.0%, and for women, 0.2%, 0.8%, 3.4%, and 4.8%. Among 95- to 99-year-old women the prevalence was 5.0%. Twelve percent of the subjects with PD were detected through the screening and had not been diagnosed previously.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University Hospital Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: de Rijk
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Breteler
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Graveland
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ott
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Grobbee
authors.forename: F G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: van der Meché
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hofman
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence