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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Movement Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1429251
This article is part of the Research Topic An Interdisciplinary Approach Towards a Greater Understanding of Parkinson's Disease View all 5 articles

Gender disparity in access to advanced therapies for patients with Parkinson's disease: a retrospective real-word study

Provisionally accepted
Giuseppe Maccarrone Giuseppe Maccarrone 1Gennaro Saporito Gennaro Saporito 1Patrizia Sucapane Patrizia Sucapane 2Chiara Rizi Chiara Rizi 1Federico Bruno Federico Bruno 3Alessia Catalucci Alessia Catalucci 3Maria L. Pistoia Maria L. Pistoia 3Alessandra Splendiani Alessandra Splendiani 1Alessandro Ricci Alessandro Ricci 4Ernesto Di Cesare Ernesto Di Cesare 1Marina Rizzo Marina Rizzo 5Rocco Totaro Rocco Totaro 2Francesca Pistoia Francesca Pistoia 1*
  • 1 University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
  • 2 Department of Neurology, San Salvatore Hospital, Pesaro, Italy
  • 3 Department of Radiology, San Salvatore Hospital, Pesaro, Abruzzo, Italy
  • 4 Department of Neurosurgery, San Salvatore Hospital, L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy
  • 5 Azienda Ospedaliera Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia Cervello, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

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

    Background: Gender differences in the access to advanced therapies for Parkinson’s disease (PD) are poorly investigated. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the presence of any gender disparity in the access to advanced therapies for PD. Design: Retrospective study. Methods: Data from patients with consistent access to the Parkinson's and Movement Disorder Center of L'Aquila over the last 10-year period were screened. Patients selected for advanced therapies were included. Results: Out of 1252 patients, 200 (mean age±SD 71.02±9.70; 72% males; median Hoen Yahr level: 3, minimum 1 maximum 5) were selected for advanced therapies: 133 for Magnetic Resonance guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) thalamotomy (mean age±SD 70.0±8.9; 77% males), 49 for Levodopa/Carbidopa Intestinal Gel (LCIG) infusion (mean age±SD 74.3±11.4; 59% males), 12 for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) (mean age±SD 71.2±6.3; 75% males), and 7 for Continuous Subcutaneous Apomorphine Infusion (CSAI) (mean age±SD 69.7±5.5; 43% males). No sex differences were found in relation to age (MRgFUS group: males vs females 70.2±8.9 vs 70.8±8.9, p-value = 0.809; LCIG group: males vs females 73.5±13.0 vs 75.5±8.5, p-value = 0.557; DBS group: males vs females 77.2±8.1 Vs 67.3±8.6, p-value = 0.843; CSAI group: males vs females 73.3±4.0 vs 67.0±5.2, p-value= 0.144) and disease duration (MRgFUS group: males vs females 8.3±4.4 vs 9.6±6.7, p-value = 0.419; LCIG group: males vs females 14.5± 5.81 vs 17.3±5.5; p-value = 0.205; DBS group: males vs females 15.0±9.6 Vs 15.5±7.7, p-value = 0.796; CSAI group: males vs females 11.7±3.7 vs 10.3±3.7, p-value= 0.505). Conclusion: The predominance of males is higher than that expected based on the higher prevalence of PD in men. Women are less confident in selecting advanced therapies during the natural progression of their disease. Factors accounting for this discrepancy deserve further investigation.

    Keywords: Parkinson's disease, MRgFUS, DBS, Apomorphine, duodopa

    Received: 07 May 2024; Accepted: 10 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Maccarrone, Saporito, Sucapane, Rizi, Bruno, Catalucci, Pistoia, Splendiani, Ricci, Di Cesare, Rizzo, Totaro and Pistoia. 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: Francesca Pistoia, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy

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