title: Prenatal and early life factors and risk of Parkinson's disease.
abstract: Few studies have investigated the relation between early life factors and risk of Parkinson's disease (PD), although a potential role of exposures during pregnancy and childhood has been hypothesized. The study population comprised participants in two prospective cohorts: the Nurses' Health Study (121,701 female nurses followed up from 1976-2002) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (51,529 male health professionals followed up from 1986-2002). PD risk was examined in relation to season of birth, birthweight, parental age at birth, preterm birth, multiple birth, ever having been breast-fed, and handedness. We identified 659 incident PD cases. No significant relation with PD was observed for birthweight, paternal age, preterm birth, multiple birth, and having been breast-fed. A modest nonsignificant association was suggested for season of birth (30% higher risk of PD associated with spring versus winter birth) and for older maternal age at birth (75% increased risk among those with mothers aged 30 years and older versus younger than 20 years). Left-handedness was associated with a 62% increased risk of PD in women but not in men. Further investigation of the relation between prenatal, perinatal, or neonatal factors and PD in other study populations is suggested.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. hgardener@med.miami.edu
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gardener
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Honglei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Schwarzschild
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Spiegelman
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ascherio
mesh_terms: D001724:Birth Weight; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010290:Parents; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012621:Seasons