WEDNESDAY, Feb. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- People with myocardial infarction (MI) have a reduced risk for Parkinson disease and secondary parkinsonism during a median follow-up of 21 years, according to a study published online Feb. 16 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Jens Sundbøll, M.D., Ph.D., from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and colleagues used Danish medical registries from 1995 to 2016 to conduct a nationwide population-based matched cohort study. All patients with a first-time MI diagnosis were included and were compared to a sex-, age-, and calendar year-matched general population comparison cohort without MI. The hazard ratios for Parkinson disease and secondary parkinsonism were computed in analyses adjusted for relevant comorbidities and socioeconomic factors.

Data were included for 181,994 patients with MI and 909,970 matched controls. The researchers found that in the MI cohort, the cumulative incidence was 0.9 and 0.1 percent for Parkinson disease and secondary parkinsonism, respectively, after a median 21 years of follow-up. MI was associated with a reduced risk for Parkinson disease and secondary parkinsonism compared with the general population cohort (adjusted hazard ratios, 0.80 and 0.72, respectively).

"These findings indicate that the risk of Parkinson's disease is at least not increased following a heart attack and should not be a worry for patients or a preventive focus for clinicians at follow-up," Sundbøll said in a statement.

Abstract/Full Text