Prevalence of Parkinson’s disease – Western Pacific Region and Southeast Asia

As detailed on the slide, the range of different reported prevalence values for PD in the Western Pacific Region and Southeast Asia are lower than those reported in Europe.^1,7 Besides variability in methodology between studies, there are other factors that could contribute to the prevalence differences between East and West.³ Smoking, for example, and the availability of different tobacco products varies across the world, and this could impact prevalence statistics because nicotine is thought to be neuroprotective.³ Tea and coffee consumption varies across the world, as do many other elements of diet linked to PD risk such as dairy products, and level and type of alcohol consumption.³ Whilst the lower prevalence of PD in Asian countries could be explained by these methodological and cultural differences, environmental and genetic differences could presumably also underlie the lower prevalence of PD in these regions.³

References:
1.Lim SY, Tan AH, Ahmad-Annuar A, et al. Parkinson’s disease in the Western Pacific Region. Lancet Neurol 2019; 18 (9): 865–879.

2.Kimura H, Kurimura M, Wada M, et al. Female preponderance of Parkinson’s disease in Japan. Neuroepidemiology 2002; 21 (6): 292–296.

3.Abbas MM, Xu Z, Tan LCS. Epidemiology of Parkinson’s disease – East versus West. Mov Disord Clin Pract 2017; 5 (1): 14–28.

4.Eun Lee J, Choi JK, Sun Lim H, et al. The prevalence and incidence of Parkinson′s disease in South Korea: a 10-year nationwide population-based study. J Korean Neurol Assoc 2017; 35 (4): 191–198.

5.India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative Neurological Disorders Collaborators. The burden of neurological disorders across the states of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990–2019. Lancet Glob Health 2021; 9 (8): e1129–e1144.

6.Prasad S, Rakesh K, Kamble N, et al. Early onset of Parkinson’s disease in India: complicating the conundrum. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2022; 105: 111–113.

7.Zhu J, Cui Y, Zhang J, et al. Temporal trends in the prevalence of Parkinson’s disease from 1980 to 2023: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Healthy Longev 2024; 5 (7): e464–e479.