Title : Sex differences in clinical and functional outcomes of Parkinson’s Disease: Single center experience in República Dominicana.
Abstract:
Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is usually more prevalent in men than in women, which has been explained in terms of environmental, hormonal and genetic influences, but little has been reported in terms of clinical characteristics among sex.
Objective: to analyze motor, non-motor, neuro-psychiatric and functional characteristics on PD according to sex.
Methods: a single center retrospective dataset was analyzed with treated PD cases in a tertiary hospital in Republica Dominicana. Demographic, clinical and functional outcomes were recorded during the follow-up period. Descriptive statistics were used to compare differences among sex.
Results: a total of 83 cases (41 female [median age 54, IQR 50-60 years] vs. 42 male [median age 54, IQR 49-52 years] were included, with a mean follow-up of 7.6 ±4.6 years for the entire population. No significant differences were found in the main comorbid conditions, previous exposition to pesticides or family history of PD between male and females cases. When comparing female cases vs. male cases, motor symptoms (resting tremor [87.5% vs. 97.6%] , Rigidity [90% vs. 88.1%], and bradykinesia [85% vs. 92.9%]) presented no differences among groups. Non-motor functional manifestations (constipation, bowel incontinence, weight loss, nocturia, hyposmia), presented a higher non-significant tendency in male cases. No differences were found in neuro-psychiatric manifestations. When analyzing functional outcomes with the Hoehn & Yahr scale, 50% of the 8 cases with H&Y=4 presented with 100% frequency of gait disturbance and dysphagia, with no differences in the rest of categories (p=0.79). In terms of therapeutic options, Dopaminergic agonists (52.2% vs. 73.8%, p=0.04) and Anti-depressive agents (15.8% vs. 2.8%, p=0.05) were more common prescribed in female cases. Finally, Only 5 early onset cases (<50 years) were detected, with no significant differences (p=0.62)
Conclusion: No significant differences were found in motor, non-motor and functional characteristics in PD cases when compared between sex.
