Constipation in a Large Online Cohort of Persons with Parkinson's Disease

Small studies suggest that constipation is a common symptom associated with a worse prognosis in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).

The aim was to compare the association between constipation, motor, and other non-motor symptoms (NMS) in PD patients at baseline and in future.

Using the Fox Insight database, we compared baseline characteristics, risk of progressive motor symptoms, and incidence of NMS between PD patients with versus without constipation.

Of 20,352 participants, 16,611 (82%) reported infrequent bowel movements and/or excessive straining, 15,594 (77%) had incomplete evacuation, and 14,165 (70%) reported both symptoms. Patients with constipation were generally older, white, women, had PD >5 years, and had higher NMS and comorbidity scores (P < 0.001). Constipation was significantly associated with worse motor symptoms and most NMS, especially fecal incontinence (odds ratio [OR] = 1.65; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.49-1.82), dysphagia (OR = 1.20; 95% CI = 1.12-1.29), talking/moving during sleep (OR = 1.39; 95% CI = 1.30-1.48), and urinary urgency (OR = 1.23; 95% CI = 1.16-1.32). Constipation was associated with a small, but statistically significant increased risk of some progressive motor symptoms. At a mean median follow-up of 2.8 years, constipation was associated with an increased risk of incident gastrointestinal, autonomic, neuropsychiatric, sleep-related, sensory NMS, such as dysphagia (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.43; 95% CI = 1.35-1.51), fecal incontinence (HR = 1.87; 95% CI = 1.74-2.01), falls (HR = 1.44; 95% CI = 1.35-1.52), hallucinations (HR = 1.65; 95% CI = 1.52-1.79), cognitive impairment (HR = 1.38; 95% CI = 1.30-1.47), and talking/moving during sleep (HR = 1.65; 95% CI = 1.55-1.75).

Constipation is a common symptom associated with severity of motor and other NMS and portends a worse prognosis in persons with PD.