Author(s): Ferreira, Joaquim J ; Gonçalves, Nilza ; Valadas, A. ; Januário, C. ; Silva, M. R. ; Nogueira, L. ; Vieira, J. L. M. ; Lima, A. B.
Date: 2017
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/53347
Origin: Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa
Subject(s): Parkinson's disease; Epidemiology; Population; Prevalence
Background and purpose: Portugal has been identified as one of the countries with a high prevalence of LRRK2-G2019S, considered to be the most frequent known cause of familial and sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of PD in Portugal using a door-to-door methodology. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Portuguese community-dwelling population; that is, elderly people living in the community on their own, aged ≥50 years and resident in mainland Portugal, in two phases: (i) a questionnaire was applied to screen potential cases of PD; and (ii) screened cases were evaluated by an expert in PD to confirm diagnosis. Results: The adjusted prevalence of PD for the Portuguese community-dwelling population aged ≥50 years was 0.24%. The estimated total number of cases of PD for the Portuguese population is 180/100 000 inhabitants. Conclusions: The results of this study show that a geographical region with a high frequency of a causal mutation for PD does not automatically imply a high prevalence of patients with PD.
