Objective: To investigate clinical characteristics of PD patients and their association with ethnicity at a reference center for movement disorders.

Background: It is well known that race is an independent factor in Parkinson’s disease (PD) regardless of sex. However, there is a lack of studies exploring associations between ethnicity and clinical characteristics in Brazilian PD patients, particularly among Afro-descendant and non-Afro-descendant individuals.

Method: Cross-sectional study conducted between 2023-2024. Clinical, social, and epidemiological data were collected, along with the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale-Part III (UPDRS-III) for motor symptoms severity and the Hoehn and Yahr scale (HY) for functional disability. Descriptive statistics were used based on variable type and distribution. Shapiro-Wilk assessed data normality, while Mann-Whitney and T-tests evaluated associations. Multivariate analysis was performed through linear regression, with a significance level of 5%.

Results: 37 individuals were included in the study. The average age was 61.49 years (SD = 1.27), while the average age at diagnosis was 53.89 years (SD = 1.46). The average UPDRSIII score was 45.22 (SD = 2.76). The median disease duration was 6.00 years (range 4.00 – 11.00). For H&Y, the median was 3.00 (range 2.00 – 3.00). The median LEDD was 775 (range 600 – 1400). Of those included, 29.7% (n = 11) were female, and 70.3% (n = 26) were male. Regarding race, 83.8% (n = 31) of the participants identified as Afro-descendants, while 16.2% (n = 6) belonged to other racial groups. Among the 37 participants, 51.4% (n = 19) had between 1 and 3 years of education, while 48.6% (n = 18) had between 4 and 8 years of education. When comparing the UPDRSIII scores between ethnicities, the mean UPDRSIII in white individuals was 60.17 (SD = 6.18), while among participants identified as Afro-descendants, the mean was 42.32 (SD = 2.82) (p = 0.013). No statistically significant differences were found between the groups regarding disease duration, H&Y staging, or LEDD. In a multivariate analysis adjusted for disease duration, age, and sex, ethnicity remained statistically significant with a value of 0.025.

Conclusion: Ethnicity is a significant factor in this study, indicating that Afro-descendants exhibit less severe motor symptoms.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/ethnicity-in-parkinsons-disease-a-brazilian-cross-sectional-study/