The Effects of Socioeconomic Status on the Progression of Parkinson’s Disease

The effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on Parkinson’s disease (PD) have not been widely studied, and the effects of SES on PD progression remain unknown. To understand this relationship, we conducted a medical record chart review of PD patients at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (WFBMC). The Levodopa Equivalent Daily Dose (LEDD) was calculated for high (N=50) and low (N=50) SES cohorts at their first available visit in the medical records, denoted as baseline, and a one-year follow up visit. These values were then compared for each cohort with year one LEDD as the primary outcome variable. The year one LEDD of the high SES cohort was 513 ± 308 mg, while the year one LEDD for the low SES cohort was 647 ± 382 mg (p=0.46). The results of this study found that there is not a significant difference in the year one LEDD between cohorts when accounting for gender, race, age, and baseline LEDD. However, this study did find that the low SES cohort had a significantly greater LEDD at baseline than the high SES cohort when other variables were not taken into account (p=0.035). The findings of our study necessitate further investigation into how SES affects the progression of PD within United States (US) populations by demonstrating socioeconomic disparities in PD progression are left to be uncovered, and our study’s design provides valuable insight for conducting research on this complex relationship in the future.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Morgan, Ryan

• Health Disparities

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/90741

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/90741