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ABSTRACT: Background
Well water frequently is considered a risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD), but few studies were designed appropriately to test whether geographic factors affect PD risk.Objective
To determine the risk of PD in relation to residential use of private well water.Methods
In a nationwide, population-based case-control study, we identified all incident PD cases (N = 89,790) and all comparable controls (N = 21,549,400) age 66-90 who solely relied on Medicare coverage in the U.S. in 2009. We estimated the probability of use of private well water using zip code of residence at diagnosis/reference and U.S. Census data on household water source. We modeled this exposure linearly in logistic regression to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of PD risk in relation to well water use. We adjusted for age, sex and race/ethnicity, and verified that smoking and use of medical care did not confound results. We repeated analyses with a 2-year exposure lag and separately within each U.S. state.Results
Use of well water was inversely associated with PD risk (OR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.85-0.89). We confirmed this association in a Cox survival analysis in which we followed controls for 5 years, death or PD diagnosis. There was little evidence that well water use increased risk of PD in any individual state.Conclusions
Although it remains possible that exposures in well water in more narrow geographic regions increase PD risk, in general these results suggest that exposures more common in urban/suburban areas might also be relevant.
SUBMITTER: Silver MR
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7342021 | biostudies-literature | 2020
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Silver Maya R MR Racette Brad A BA Dube Umber U Faust Irene M IM Searles Nielsen Susan S
Journal of Parkinson's disease 20200101 2
<h4>Background</h4>Well water frequently is considered a risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD), but few studies were designed appropriately to test whether geographic factors affect PD risk.<h4>Objective</h4>To determine the risk of PD in relation to residential use of private well water.<h4>Methods</h4>In a nationwide, population-based case-control study, we identified all incident PD cases (N = 89,790) and all comparable controls (N = 21,549,400) age 66-90 who solely relied on Medicare cove ...[more]