Environmental tobacco smoke and Parkinson's disease.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Parkinson's disease is inversely associated with cigarette smoking, but its relation with passive smoking or environmental tobacco smoke exposure is rarely examined.

METHODS:

Within a case-control study, we assessed the association between Parkinson's disease and living or working with active smokers. Cases were newly diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (n = 154) from western Washington State in 2002-2008. Age- and sex-matched controls (n = 173) were neurologically normal and unrelated to cases.

RESULTS:

Compared with never active or passive tobacco smokers, we observed reduced Parkinson's disease risks for ever passive only smokers (OR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.16-0.73), similar to those for ever active smokers (OR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.17-0.73). Among persons whose only tobacco smoke exposure was passive smoking at home, risk was inversely associated with years exposed.

CONCLUSIONS:

These observations parallel those well established for active smoking. However, it remains unresolved whether a true protective effect of tobacco smoke, generally detrimental to health, underlies these associations.

• Authors: Susan Searles Nielsen, Lisa G Gallagher, Jessica I Lundin, W T Longstreth Jr, Terri Smith-Weller, Gary M Franklin, Phillip D Swanson, Harvey Checkoway
• Journal: Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society (Mov Disord) Vol. 27 Issue 2 Pg. 293-6 (Feb 2012) ISSN: 1531-8257 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 22095755 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2011 Movement Disorder Society.

Chemical References

• Tobacco Smoke Pollution

Topics

• Aged
• Case-Control Studies
• Environmental Exposure (statistics & numerical data)
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Odds Ratio
• Parkinson Disease (epidemiology)
• Retrospective Studies
• Risk Factors
• Smoking (epidemiology)
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• Tobacco Smoke Pollution (statistics & numerical data)