Familial and environmental risk factors in Parkinson's disease: a case-control study in north-east Italy.
OBJECTIVE
The aetiology of Parkinson's disease remains unknown, although both genetic susceptibility and environmental factors are considered putative contributors to its origin. We performed a case-control study to investigate the association of familial and environmental risk factors with Parkinson's disease (PD).


METHODS
We studied 136 patients with neurologist confirmed PD and 272 age- and sex-matched controls, affected by neurological diseases not related to PD. The risk of developing idiopathic PD associated with the following familial and environmental factors: positive family history of PD, positive family history of essential tremor (ET), age of mother at subject's birth, rural birth, rural living, well water use, farming as an occupation, exposure to pesticides, head tremor, exposure to general anaesthesia and to ionizing radiations, food restriction, concentration camp imprisonment and smoking has been assessed by using univariate and multivariate statistical techniques.


RESULTS
In the conditional multiple logistic regression analysis, positive family history of PD (OR 41.7, 95% CI 12.2-142.5, P < 0.0001), positive family history of ET (OR 10.8, 95% CI 2.6-43.7, P < 0.0001), age of mother at subject's birth (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.4-3.7, P=0.0013), exposure to general anaesthesia (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.8, P=0.0024), farming as an occupation (OR 7.7, 95% CI 1.4-44.1, P=0.0212) and well water use (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1-3.6, P=0.0308) exhibited a significant positive association with PD, whereas smoking showed a trend toward an inverse relationship with PD (OR 0.7, 95% CI 0.4-1.1, P < 0.06).


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that both familial and environmental factors may contribute to PD aetiology.
Zorzon
M
M
Department of Clinical Medicine and Neurology, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. m.zorzon@fmc.units.it
Capus
L
L
Pellegrino
A
A
Cazzato
G
G
Zivadinov
R
R
D000368:Aged; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004782:Environmental Health; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D009790:Occupations; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D014881:Water Supply