The Study
PASIDA is the to date largest case-control study of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) in Denmark that ascertained risk factor information and genetic bio-samples; it is a collaboration between UCLA principle investigator Dr Ritz and colleagues in Denmark, Drs. J. Olsen, J. Hansen, and L. Wermuth.
Denmark maintains electronic health science information data and nationwide registers since the 1960s. Patients newly registered with PD were identified from the Danish National Hospital Register and population controls from the Central Population Register between January 1995 and April 2009.
Our team reviewed Neurology Department records of patients to confirm diagnoses and interviewed all study participants in 2008-2010 to obtain potential risk factor data, including selected environmental exposures, chronic diseases and medical treatments, anthropometric characteristics, head trauma, selected occupational exposures, reproductive and hormone-related conditions in women, and lifestyle habits including smoking, caffeine and alcohol consumption, sun bathing, sports, and sleeping behavior.
Almost 90% of the 1,813 PD cases and 1,887 controls we interviewed also provided a DNA sample.