The Risk of Parkinson Disease Associated with Urate in a Community-Based Cohort of Older Adults

Background/Aims: Studies suggest an inverse association between urate concentration and the risk of Parkinson disease (PD). We investigated this in the Cardiovascular Health Study in an elderly community-based cohort of adults. Methods: The association of baseline urate (µmol/l) and incident PD over 14 years was assessed with locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) regression from which categories of low (500 µmol/l) urate ranges were derived. Multivariate logistic regression models assessed the risk of PD for each urate range. Linear and quadratic terms were tested when modeling the association between urate and the risk of PD. Results: Women had significantly lower urate concentrations than did men [316.8 µmol/l (SD 88.0) vs. 367.4 µmol/l (SD 87.7), p < 0.0001] and in women no associations between urate and PD risk were observed. In men, LOESS curves suggested a U-shaped or threshold effect between urate and PD risk. With the middle range as reference, the risk of developing PD was significantly increased for urate 500 µmol/l (OR 1.55, 95% CI 0.72–3.32) in men. A negative linear term was significant for urate