title: The stressful life events and Parkinson's disease: a case-control study.
abstract: A case-control study was conducted in order to investigate the possible link between stressful life events and Parkinson's disease (PD). A group of 110 consecutive newly diagnosed PD cases treated at the Institute of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade University, was compared with a control group comprising 220 subjects with degenerative joint disease and some diseases of the digestive tract. The case and control subjects were matched by sex, age (±2 years) and place of residence (urban/rural). According to conditional multivariate logistic regression analysis, PD was found to be significantly related to retirement (odds ratio--OR 18.73, 95% confidence interval--95%CI 1.9-175.4), birth of own child (OR 66.22, 95%CI 8.3-526.3) and air raids (OR 5.66, 95%CI 2.4-13.5). The risk of PD significantly increased with the number of stressful events. The results of the present study support the hypothesis that stress may play a role in the development of PD.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia. kristiv@eunet.rs
authors.forename: Hristina
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vlajinac
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sipetic
authors.forename: Jelena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marinkovic
authors.forename: Isidora
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ratkov
authors.forename: Jadranka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maksimovic
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dzoljic
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kostic
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001601:Bereavement; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012179:Retirement / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014505:Urban Population; D014857:Warfare