Mortality and quality of death certification in a cohort of patients with Parkinson’s disease and matched controls in North Wales, UK at 18 years: a community-based cohort study

• Published in: BMJ open 2018-02, Vol.8 (2), p.e018969-e018969
• Main Authors: Hobson, Peter, Meara, Jolyon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cancer; Case-Control Studies; Cause of Death; Certification; Chronic illnesses; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Comorbidity; Data Accuracy; Death Certificates; Dementia; Dementia - mortality; Disease; Female; Health services; Heart Diseases - mortality; Hospitalization; Humans; Male; Mortality; Neurology; Parkinson Disease - complications; Parkinson Disease - mortality; Parkinson's disease; Pneumonia - etiology; Pneumonia - mortality; Population; Proportional Hazards Models; Public health; Quality of Life; Systematic review; Wales - epidemiology
• ISSN: 2044-6055; 2044-6055
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018969

ObjectiveThis investigation reports the cause and the quality of death certification in a community cohort of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and controls at 18 years.SettingDenbighshire North Wales, UK.ParticipantsThe community-based cohorts consisted of 166 patients with PD and 102 matched controls.Primary outcomesAll-cause mortality was ascertained at 18 years by review of hospitals’ primary care records and examination of death certificates obtained from the UK General Register Office. Mortality HRs were estimated using Cox proportional regression, controlling for covariates including age at study entry, age at death, gender, motor function, mood, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and cognitive function.ResultsAfter 18 years, 158 (95%) of patients in the PD cohort and 34 (33%) in the control cohort had died. Compared with the general UK population, the PD cohort had a higher risk of mortality (standard mortality rate, 1.82, 95% CI 1.55 to 2.13). As the primary or underlying cause of death, PD was not reported in 75/158 (47%) of the death certificates. In addition, although 144/158 (91%) of the PD cohort had a diagnosis of dementia, this was reported in less than 10% of death certificates. The main cause of death reported in the PD cohort was pneumonia (53%), followed by cardiac-related deaths (21%). Compared with controls, patients with PD had a greater risk of pneumonia (2.03, 95% CI 1.34 to 3.6), poorer HRQoL and more likely to reside in institutional care at death (P