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MONDAY, Oct. 5, 2020 (HealthDay News) — COVID-19-related case fatality rates are higher for patients with Parkinson disease (PD), independent of age, sex, and race, according to a research letter published online Sept. 21 in Movement Disorders<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Qiang Zhang, M.D., from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and colleagues compared COVID-19 case fatality rates in PD patients to those of a large, demographically matched population identified using data from the TriNetX COVID-19 research network (79,049 adult COVID-19 patients, of whom 694 had PD as of July 15, 2020). Mortality data were followed until September 9, 2020.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that 5.5 percent of non-PD patients died versus 21.3 percent of PD patients. When adjusting for age, sex, and race, the risk for dying from COVID-19 was significantly elevated in the PD group (odds ratio, 1.27). When matching five COVID-19 patients without PD to each PD patient and continuing to adjust for age, sex, and race, similar results were found (odds ratio, 1.30).<\/p>\n
“We are all focused on COVID right now, but this is a clear example of a respiratory illness that leads to increased mortality [in PD patients]. These findings may also have implications for understanding risks for PD patients from other diseases, including influenza,” a coauthor said in a statement. “I would recommend a flu vaccine and pneumonia vaccine to try to prevent these problems in patients with PD.”<\/p>\n
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