Comparison of utilization of Sinemet and Parkinson's disease mortality as surrogate indicators of Parkinson's disease in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
To compare two surrogate indicators of population disease burden for Parkinson's disease: utilization of Sinemet and Parkinson's disease mortality.


METHODS
National Center for Health Statistics data were used to tabulate Parkinson's disease mortality in the United States by state for 1987-1989. Sinemet sales data by state were obtained from Merck & Co., Inc. for 1988. Least squares regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between Sinemet utilization and Parkinson's disease mortality.


METHODS
United States.


RESULTS
Regression analyses showed extraordinarily strong associations between state-level Parkinson's disease mortality and Sinemet utilization (underlying-cause model r2 = 0.969, p = 0.0001; multiple-cause model r2 = 0.980, p = 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Sinemet utilization very closely parallels Parkinson's disease mortality, suggesting that Sinemet utilization and Parkinson's disease mortality are both useful indices of the population burden of Parkinson's disease for large-scale epidemiological studies.
Lanska
D J
DJ
Department of Neurology, University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington 40536-0284, USA. djlansva@ukcc.uky.edu
D000978:Antiparkinson Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002230:Carbidopa / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003710:Demography; D004338:Drug Combinations; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016014:Linear Models; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D000978:Antiparkinson Agents; D004338:Drug Combinations; C009265:carbidopa, levodopa drug combination; D007980:Levodopa; D002230:Carbidopa