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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Movement Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1411468

Exposure to household pesticides and Parkinson's disease in the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative cohort

Provisionally accepted
Bruno L. Santos-Lobato Bruno L. Santos-Lobato 1*Artur F. Schumacher-Schuh Artur F. Schumacher-Schuh 2
  • 1 Federal University of Pará, Belém, Brazil
  • 2 Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: In the last decades, the association of household pesticide usage with Parkinson's disease (PD) has been poorly explored, with discordant results. Based on the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) cohort study, we analyzed (1) the association of household pesticide exposure with the development of PD and (2) the effect of household pesticides on progression of PD. Methods: Data from participants of the "FOllow Up persons with Neurologic Disease" (FOUND study) included in the PPMI cohort database were analyzed. The PPMI FOUND study applied the Parkinson's Disease Risk Factor Questionnaire to collect information regarding the use of pesticides in non-work settings during periods of life, and the lifetime pesticide exposurefor each participant was estimated. We defined a high use of pesticides if the exposure estimate had a z-score higher than one standard deviation from the mean. Also, we evaluated longitudinal data of people with PD to analyze the effect of high use of household pesticides on disease progression according to motor impairment, cognitive dysfunction, depressive symptoms, and modification of motor clinical phenotype. Results: We analyzed data from 206 people with PD and 64 healthy controls, almost all from the USA. High use of household pesticides was not associated with the odds of developing PD. Regarding PD progression, only cognitive dysfunction was associated with the high use of household fungicides (HR 5.64 per standard deviation increase in exposure estimate, 95% CI 1. 41-22.6). Conclusions: Chronic exposure to household pesticides may impact the clinical progression of PD, especially cognitive symptoms.

    Keywords: pesticide, Parkinson Disease, risk, Cognition, Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative

    Received: 03 Apr 2024; Accepted: 24 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Santos-Lobato and Schumacher-Schuh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Bruno L. Santos-Lobato, Federal University of Pará, Belém, Brazil

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.