[Epidemiology of Parkinson disease in the Pozna'n province]

The authors analyzed the prevalence and incidence of parkinsonism in the Poznań region. The research led to the following conclusions: 1. Incidence of parkinsonism in the Poznań region amounts to 12.6 per 100,000 of population, which is the middle value of scatter in the investigation on a world-scale. The prevalence of the disease--65.9 per 100,000--is the lower range of values found in many countries of the world. This seems to point to a shorter survival time of patients with parkinsonism in our country. 2. Among various age groups, the highest incidence and prevalence of parkinsonism is found in the age groups of 70-79 and 80-89, with slightly higher prevalence rates among males. 3. The authors found in the Poznań region irregular prevalence of parkinsonism, that is the existence of small focuses of the disease, which seems to depend on unfavourable genetic factors existing in those places.