Background:

In general, the risk to develop Parkinson’s disease (PD) is higher in men compared to women. Besides male sex and genetics, research suggests diabetes mellitus (DM) is a risk factor for PD as well.

Objective:

In this population-level study, we aimed at investigating the sex-specific impact of DM on new diagnoses of PD. Methods:Medical claims data were analyzed in a cross-sectional study in the Austrian population between 1997 and 2014. In the age group of 40–79 and 80+, 235,268 patients (46.6%females, 53.4%males) with DM were extracted and compared to 1,938,173 non-diabetic controls (51.9%females, 48.1%males) in terms of risk of developing PD. Results:Men with DM had a 1.46 times increased odds ratio (OR) to be diagnosed with PD compared to non-diabetic men (95%CI 1.38–1.54, p <  0.001). The association of DM with newly diagnosed PD was significantly greater in women (OR = 1.71, 95%CI 1.60–1.82, p <  0.001) resulting in a relative risk increase of 1.17 (95%CI 1.11–1.30) in the age group 40 to 79 years. In 80+-year-olds the relative risk increase is 1.09 (95%CI 1.01–1.18).

Conclusion:

Although men are more prone to develop PD, women see a higher risk increase in PD than men amongst DM patients.

C. Deischinger, E. Dervic, M. Kaleta, P. Klimek, A. Kautzky-Willer, Diabetes mellitus is associated with a higher relative risk for Parkinson’s disease in women than in men, Journal of Parkinson’s Disease (pre-press) (2021) 1–8