Parkinson's and motoneuron disease morbidity in the Twin Cities metropolitan area: 1979-1984

To better characterize the morbidity from Parkinson's disease and motoneuron disease, we examined hospital discharge diagnosis data for all acute care facilities (except for the Veterans Administration Medical Center) in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in each year from 1979 to 1984 for persons aged 30-74 years. For each person in whom the discharge diagnosis included either Parkinson's disease or motoneuron disease, the age, gender, and year of admission were recorded. Annual age-gender-specific and age-adjusted gender-specific hospital discharge diagnosis rates were calculated. For Parkinson's disease, for both, men and women, the age-adjusted hospital discharge diagnosis rate declined by 26-27%. Component age-specific data for Parkinson's disease showed more variable temporal changes. For motoneuron disease, no temporal changes were observed, although the number of observations was small. These data suggest that Parkinson's disease is declining in prevalence in the hospitalized population. The implications for motoneuron disease are less clear. Further studies in this area are needed.