Survival and Health Care Use After Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson's Disease

To compare long-term survival of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with deep brain stimulation (DBS) to matched controls, and examine whether DBS was associated with differences in injurious falls, long-term care, and home care.

Using administrative health data (Ontario, Canada), we examined DBS outcomes within a cohort of individuals diagnosed with PD between 1997 and 2012. Patients receiving DBS were matched with non-DBS controls by age, sex, PD diagnosis date, time with PD, and a propensity score. Survival between groups was compared using the log-rank test and marginal Cox proportional hazards regression. Cumulative incidence function curves and marginal subdistribution hazard models were used to assess effects of DBS on falls, long-term care admission, and home care use, with death as a competing risk.

There were 260 DBS recipients matched with 551 controls. Patients undergoing DBS did not experience a significant survival advantage compared to controls (log-rank test p = 0.50; HR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.65-1.22). Among patients <65 years of age, DBS recipients had a significantly reduced risk of death (HR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.28-0.84). Patients receiving DBS were more likely than controls to receive care for falls (HR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.19-2.05) and home care (HR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.32-1.90), while long-term care admission was similar between groups.

Receiving DBS may increase survival for younger PD patients who undergo DBS. Future studies should examine whether survival benefits may be attributed to effects on PD or the absence of comorbidities that influence mortality.