Objective: This project aims to identify epidemiological characteristics specific to people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) treated with PD medications or device-aided therapies in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Background: PD is rapidly growing as a neurological condition worldwide, yet comprehensive epidemiological data on PD, and specifically advanced Parkinson’s disease (aPD), are limited in Australia.

Method: A retrospective database study was conducted to describe patient characteristics and the treatment characteristics of people with PD and aPD in NSW. The study utilized linked, population-level medicines dispensing, hospital, Medicare and mortality data (Data period: January 2013 to December 2020 [figure1]).  Evidence of PD was considered as being dispensed PD medication and/or being hospitalised with a diagnosis code for PD. Evidence of aPD was considered being dispensed medications identified as being advanced oral and intermittent rescue treatment (sub-cohort A) or being dispensed medications delivered via devices and/or receiving deep brain stimulation with a history of levodopa (sub-cohort B).

Results: The study reported a prevalence of 51,591 PD cases in NSW in 2020. Among them,13,266 (25.71%) were treated with advanced oral/intermittent medications (sub-cohort A), and 832 (1.61%) with DATs (sub-cohort B). The average age for starting oral PD medication was 64, while advanced therapies were commenced at 73. Only 3% of patients who commenced advanced oral treatment during the study period subsequently progressed to DAT. Notably, patients moving to DAT were typically 10 years younger than those on oral/intermittent treatments alone. Most PD patients resided in major cities (65%), belonged to the second lowest socio-economic quintile, and had 5+ comorbidities.

Conclusion: Linked data provides robust information on patient characteristics and treatment patterns of a large number of patients with Parkinson’s disease in Australia, and provides the first population-level source of Australian PD epidemiology and prevalence. Further analysis of this data will provide detailed insights into PD treatment patterns in Australia and how these affect PD patient outcomes and health care resource utilisation.

Overview of study population

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/parkinsons-disease-epidemiology-and-treatment-characteristics-in-australia/