Objective: Our primary aim was to evaluate whether Parkinson’s disease is associated with an increased risk of dementia and death.

Background: The prevalence of Parkinson’s disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, is expected to increase as populations worldwide age. Insight into the prognosis is therefore desirable. Parkinson’s disease has been associated with an increased risk of developing dementia and a reduced life expectancy. However, most prognostic studies have been hospital based, yielding results that are not representative of the general population.

Methods: A total of 89 participants with Parkinson’s disease were investigated. Parkinson’s disease and dementia were assessed through in-person examination at baseline (2014) and 1 follow-up visit (2015). Computerized linkage to medical records provided additional information on disease outcomes and mortality. Main outcome measures were incident dementia and death.

Results: Patients with Parkinson’s disease had an increased risk of dementia (hazard ratio, 2.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.8-4.4), which was especially pronounced in participants with clinically expressed symptoms of PD (13.5; 4.5-40.6). Parkinson’s disease was associated with an increased mortality risk (1.8; 1.5-2.3). The association consistently diminished when analyses were sequentially restricted to patients with shorter disease duration and after adjustment for the occurrence of dementia.

Conclusions: Especially patients with Parkinson’s disease have an increased risk of developing dementia. Increased mortality risk in Parkinson’s disease is dependent on disease duration and is only modest in the absence of dementia.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/life-expectancy-and-dementia-two-sides-of-the-coin-in-parkinsons-disease/