Statin use and the risk of Parkinson’s disease in persons with diabetes:
A nested case-control study
Abstract
Abstract Background: Persons with diabetes may have an elevated risk of
Parkinson’s disease. Statin use could also modify the progression of
Parkinson’s disease. Objective: The aim was to study whether there is an
association between statin exposure and risk of Parkinson’s disease in
persons with diabetes Methods: A nationwide nested case-control study of
2,017 Parkinson’s disease cases and their 7,934 matched controls with
diabetes was performed using data from the Finnish Parkinson’s disease
study (FINPARK). Persons with Parkinson’s disease were diagnosed between
1999–2015 and statin use (1995–2015) was determined from Prescription
Register. In the main analysis exposure at least three years before
outcome was considered. Cumulative exposure was categorized into
tertiles, and associations were analyzed with conditional logistic
regression. Results: Prevalence of statin use was similar in Parkinson’s
disease cases and controls, with 54.2% of cases and 54.4% controls
exposed before the lag time (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.02; 95% CI:
0.91–1.15). Those in the highest cumulative statin exposure tertile had
higher risk of Parkinson’s disease than statin nonusers (aOR = 1.21;
95% CI: 1.04–1.42), or those in the lowest cumulative statin exposure
tertile (aOR = 1.29; 95% CI: 1.07–1.57). Conclusions: Our nationwide
study that controlled for diabetes duration and reverse causality does
not provide support for the hypothesis that statin use decreases the
risk of Parkinson’s disease.