Trends in Prevalence of Parkinson's Disease in German General and Neurological Practices from 2010 to 2019

Background A considerable increase in the prevalence of Parkinson's disease is expected by 2040, adding a substantial burden on health care systems. The aim of this study was to investigate the trend in number of patients with Parkinson's disease in the period from 2010 to 2019 in German general and neurological practices. Method The study is based on data from 411 GP and 56 neurological practices from the IQVIA Disease Analyzer database. We report the number of established and newly diagnosed patients with Parkinson's disease in 2010 and 2019 by age and sex and the proportion of patients receiving therapy. Results The number of patients with Parkinson's disease in general practices was 3,352 in 2010 and 3,541 in 2019, and in neurological practices 4,976 in 2010 and 4,826 in 2019. This represented a change from 0.36% to 0.33% of all patients in general practice and from 3.5% to 3.3% of patients in neurological practices. The number of new diagnoses decreased slightly from 862 (0.09% of patients) in 2010 to 836 (0.08% of patients) in 2019 in general practices, and from 1,818 (1.27% of patients) in 2010 to 1,372 (0.95% of patients) in 2019 in neurological practices. The proportion of women among all patients with Parkinson's disease decreased in both general and neurological practices from 52.0% and 50.2% to 47.3% and 46.0% respectively. The mean age increased from 77.1 (SD 10.4) in 2010 to 77.7 (SD 9.3) years in 2019 in general practices and from 74.6 (SD 9.9) to 75.8 (SD 9.9) years in neurological practices. Discussion The predicted increase in number of patients with Parkinson's disease was not seen in the period from 2010 to 2019. However, there was a shift towards older age groups and a lower proportion of women with Parkinson's disease. In addition to aetiological considerations, peculiarities of the care system and methodological limitations must be taken into account.

Automated summary

There was no increase in the number of patients with Parkinson's disease in Germany from 2010 to 2019, but there was an increase in the proportion of elderly patients and a decrease in the proportion of female patients.