Is Hepatitis C a Risk Factor for Parkinson Disease?

Michael S. Okun, MD reviewing Tsai H-H et al. Neurology 2015 Dec 23.

A case-control study suggests an association.

To investigate whether hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a risk factor for Parkinson disease (PD), researchers used data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The data included 49,967 patients with viral hepatitis (hepatitis B, hepatitis C, or both) diagnosed between 2000 and 2010 and 199,868 patients without hepatitis frequency-matched to cases for comparison. The authors calculated the risk for PD diagnosis in the 12 years after the index date.

The risk for developing PD was not significantly different between the hepatitis and control groups but was significantly increased in the HCV subgroup compared with controls, even after adjustment for age, sex, and comorbidities (unadjusted hazard ratio, 2.50; adjusted HR, 1.29). The authors concluded that HCV infection increases the risk for PD.

Citation(s):

Tsai H-H et al. Hepatitis C virus infection as a risk factor for Parkinson disease: A nationwide cohort study Neurology 2015 Dec 23; [e-pub].