Objective: To characterize the demographic, socioeconomic, clinical and healthcare features of African American (AA) patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) compared to Caucasian PD patients in a tertiary center with a large AA population.

Background: The prevalence and incidence of PD in AAs were reported to be lower than that of Caucasians in many, but not all, studies. Although the difference in design could account for some of the discrepancy, socioeconomic disparity could also make AA PD patients less representable in healthcare system and lead to the difference. There have not yet been many studies on the socioeconomic, clinical and health features in AA PD patients. The small AA patient volume of the entire clinic patient population often has limited our ability to do comprehensive analysis. To address the knowledge gap, we evaluated these features of the AA and Caucasian patients with PD treated at our institute located on the South Side of Chicago, home to more than 1 million AAs.

Method: We identified the diagnosis of PD, collected data from hospital database from 1/1/2006 to 10/31/2017, and compared AA and Caucasian patients for demographics, socioeconomics, clinical features and medication usage.

Results: We found 728 AA and 1308 Caucasian patients with PD, with a significant difference in gender distribution (male/female of 1:1 vs 1:6, respectively). The mean age at diagnosis was significantly later by 3 years in AA compared to Caucasian PD patients while their age at death was not different. AA PD patients were significantly more likely to live in a lower education and income neighborhood, more likely to have Medicare or Medicaid insurance, and less likely to have private insurance. AA PD patients were also significantly more likely to have cognitive impairment or psychosis, with a trend of increased mood disorders as well. AA PD patients were significantly less likely to be on anti-PD medications, antidepressants, or anxiolytics, but more likely on medications for cognitive impairment and psychosis.

Conclusion: In this study with the largest volume of AA PD patients from a single center so far to our knowledge, we found significant differences in gender distribution, age at diagnosis, socioeconomics, non-motor symptoms, and medication usage between AA and Caucasian PD patients, with many features being studied for the first time. Further studies are needed to corroborate our findings.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/african-american-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-a-hospital-based-study-compared-to-caucasian-patients/