Prospective study of statin use and risk of Parkinson disease

To prospectively examine whether use of statins is associated with altered risk of Parkinson disease (PD).

A prospective study including 38 192 men and 90 874 women participating in 2 ongoing US cohorts, the Health Professional Follow-up Study and the Nurses' Health Study, was conducted. Information on regular cholesterol-lowering drug use (≥2 times/wk) was collected in 1994 in both cohorts via questionnaire. Relative risks (RRs) and 95% CIs were computed using Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for age, smoking, caffeine intake, duration of hypercholesterolemia, and other covariates.

Incident PD.

During 12 years of follow-up (1994-2006), we documented 644 incident PD cases (338 women and 306 men). The risk of PD was lower among current statin users (adjusted pooled RR = 0.74; 95% CI, 0.54-1.00; P = .049) relative to nonusers. A significant association was observed in participants younger than 60 years at baseline (adjusted pooled RR = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.11-0.86; P = .02) but not among those who were older (adjusted pooled RR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.60-1.14; P = .25) (P for interaction = .03).

We found that regular use of statins was associated with a modest reduction in PD risk. The possibility that some statins may reduce PD risk deserves further consideration.