Objective: Our aim was to characterize the role of dyslipidemia and statin use in Parkinson’s disease (PD) development, specifically with respect to differences in significance per sex.
Background: The role of dyslipidemia and statin use in the development of PD has remained controversial. To our knowledge, the relationship between dyslipidemia, statin use, and PD development with respect to sex has not been explored.
Method: The Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) study dataset was queried for patients with a diagnosis of PD and healthy controls enrolled between 2010 and 2024. The following variables were queried: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, race, education years, and body mass index. Data on lipophilic or hydrophilic statin and non-statin cholesterol lowering drug (fibrate, niacin, ezetimibe) use was collected. Propensity score matching (PSM) was conducted using age at PD diagnosis at ratio 3:1. Cox proportional-hazards analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between these clinical variables and risk of developing PD. Analyses were conducted cumulatively and individually per sex.
Results: Among a total of 1352 patients, 967 patients were included following PSM. 75.0% had PD, 37.1% were female, 94.4% were white, and mean age 65.6±9.0. Among them, 10.4% had report of dyslipidemia. Via the Cox proportional-hazards analysis, after adjusting for age, race, education level, and other vascular risk factors, we did not find any significant association between dyslipidemia and PD risk among the cumulative cohort and stratified per sex. After controlling for use of all cholesterol lowering drugs, risk of PD development was decreased with overall statin use over 5 years among males (HR=0.71, 95% CI 0.52-0.96, p=0.03) and lipophilic statin use over 5 years among the cumulative cohort (HR=0.72, 95% CI 0.54-0.97, p=0.03) and males (HR=0.66, 95% CI 0.47-0.93, p=0.02). These associations were not seen among females.
Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that while dyslipidemia may not be linked to PD risk, statins, notably lipophilic ones, may provide protection against PD among the cumulative cohort and males but not females. These findings may provide important insight into sex-specific role of dyslipidemia and statin use in PD development.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
K. Tsutsumi, E. Shah, S. Isfahani. Sex specific role of dyslipidemia and statin use in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2025; 40 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/sex-specific-role-of-dyslipidemia-and-statin-use-in-parkinsons-disease-pathogenesis/. Accessed October 5, 2025.« Back to 2025 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/sex-specific-role-of-dyslipidemia-and-statin-use-in-parkinsons-disease-pathogenesis/