Healthy Dietary Patterns and Risk of Parkinson's Disease

Although healthy dietary patterns have been suggested to be associated with decreased Parkinson's disease (PD) risk, their protective role remains uncertain.

To examine associations between eight dietary patterns and PD risk in two United States (US) cohorts followed for up to 32 years.

We analyzed 70,973 women from the Nurses' Health Study and 45,820 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Dietary patterns were assessed every 4 years using food frequency questionnaires. Cox regression models estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for PD across quintiles of cumulative average adherence.

During follow-up, 579 women and 600 men developed PD. Higher adherence to dietary patterns was not associated with PD risk. Comparing the highest versus lowest quintile, HRs (95% CIs) were 1.01 (0.75-1.36) for the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010, 1.11 (0.91-1.35) for the Alternate Mediterranean Diet, 1.12 (0.69-1.79) for the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, 1.01 (0.84-1.22) for the healthful Plant-based Diet Index, 1.09 (0.90-1.32) for the Planetary Health Diet Index, 1.02 (0.84-1.24) for the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay diet score, 1.12 (0.90-1.38) for the reversed Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Pattern, and 0.99 (0.68-1.45) for the reversed Empirical Dietary Index for Hyperinsulinemia. In food-groups analyses, higher low-fat dairy intake was associated with higher PD risk (HR_Q5vsQ1: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.13-1.68).

In two US cohorts, adherence to eight healthy dietary patterns was not associated with PD risk. Although these patterns are associated with lower risk of several chronic diseases, they may be ineffective for PD prevention. © 2026 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.