Genetic and environmental risk factors for Parkinson's diseasein a Chinese population

An epidemiological study of the environmental and geneticfactors as well as the possible interplay between them was conducted among 215 patients with Parkinson's disease and 313 controls in aChinese population in Hong Kong. In univariate analysis, a regular teadrinking habit was found to be a protective factor, which had not beenreported before. Smoking (a protective factor), family history,duration of pesticide exposure (in years) in farming and pesticideexposure during farming in women (both risk factors) have been reportedpreviously. In multivariate analysis, current smoking reachedborderline significance at the 5% level and the variables, yearsexposed to pesticides and family history were significant at the 10%level. By contrast with the common occurrence of polymorphism of theCYP2D6 gene (a gene involved with xenobiotic metabolism) in whitepeople, it is very rare in China and is not thought to be a significantfactor contributing to Parkinson's disease in Chinese people.