Prospective study of statin use and risk of Parkinson disease.

OBJECTIVE

To prospectively examine whether use of statins is associated with altered risk of Parkinson disease (PD).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND

PARTICIPANTS

A prospective study including 38 192 men and 90 874 women participating in 2 ongoing US cohorts, the Health Professional Follow-up Study and the Nurses' Health Study, was conducted. Information on regular cholesterol-lowering drug use (≥2 times/wk) was collected in 1994 in both cohorts via questionnaire. Relative risks (RRs) and 95% CIs were computed using Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for age, smoking, caffeine intake, duration of hypercholesterolemia, and other covariates.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Incident PD.

RESULTS

During 12 years of follow-up (1994-2006), we documented 644 incident PD cases (338 women and 306 men). The risk of PD was lower among current statin users (adjusted pooled RR = 0.74; 95% CI, 0.54-1.00; P = .049) relative to nonusers. A significant association was observed in participants younger than 60 years at baseline (adjusted pooled RR = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.11-0.86; P = .02) but not among those who were older (adjusted pooled RR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.60-1.14; P = .25) (P for interaction = .03).

CONCLUSIONS

We found that regular use of statins was associated with a modest reduction in PD risk. The possibility that some statins may reduce PD risk deserves further consideration.