Research Assistant Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Yardley, Pennsylvania, United States
Introduction: Parkinson’s disease is a long-term central nervous system degenerative disorder. Its symptomology often includes tremors, dementia, and ultimately death. No known cure exists. Monitoring Parkinson’s mortality trends are necessary to ensure improved public health. This study aims to investigate the mortality of Parkinson’s throughout North America.
Methods: World Health Organization (WHO) mortality database was analyzed to find mortality rates due to Parkinson's in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Results: There were 529.9k deaths due to Parkinson's across the study period. The USA had the highest total death count (464.5k), followed by Canada (43.1k), and Mexico (22.4k). The age-standardized death rate per 100,000 increased 1.57 times in the USA from 2000 to 2019 (2.98 vs. 4.66). Mexico saw a 1.27 times greater increase in age-standardized death rate per 100,000 over the study period (1.04 to 1.21). Canada had the lowest increase, at 1.21 times greater from 2000 to 2019 (2.71 to 3.27). In 2019, the USA had 21.8 times more total deaths than Mexico and 11.2 times more than Canada. The USA had the largest increase in the percentage of cause-specific deaths out of total deaths across the study period (+47.2%), followed by Canada (+38.8%), and Mexico (+31.0%).
Conclusion : In the USA, Canada, and Mexico, mortality regarding Parkinson's shows an increasing trend. Future research should investigate the causes of such trends and measures to decrease mortality rates.
