How Widespread is Parkinsons Disease?

The statistics related to Parkinsons Disease can be overwhelming. Because misdiagnoses are so common, many of the organizations that regularly report health statistics caution that the real prevalence of the disease may be as much as 40% higher than is being reported. In addition, since Parkinsons isn’t an infectious disease, it doesn’t have to be reported, which further hampers efforts to gather reliable data. In general, it is agreed that it is one of the most common neurological diseases affecting adults over the age of 65. Diagnoses of the Disease in adults between the ages of 40 and 65 has increased in the past few decades, though as yet there is no attributable cause. Because of its relatively slow progress, a person diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease may live another 40-50 years, with increasing disability.

- One person in every 200 will be diagnosed with the Disease in their lifetime.

- One out of every 100 people over 60 in the United States will be diagnosed with the Disease.

- There are over 50,000 new diagnosed cases of the disease in the United States every year.

- There are 2.500-5,000 cases of the disease diagnosed in adults under the age of 40 every year in the United States.

- Parkinsons Disease was responsible for 15,600 deaths in the year 2,000. That’s a rate of 5.5 per 100,000 persons in the general population.

- In adults over the age of 65, the death rate from the Disease rises to 43.6 per 100,000.

- Parkinsons Disease was responsible for the deaths of 300 adults under the age of 65 in the year 2000.

- In 1999, approximately 9 percent of men and 4.3 percent of women admitted to nursing homes were diagnosed with the Disease.

- An average of 239,000 adults with the Disease are admitted to hospitals each year.

- Approximately 1% of the U.S. population over the age of 65 is diagnosed with the Disease.

- A survey presented in the British Medical Journal in the year 2000 suggested that the true prevalence of the Disease in the UK is approximately 200 per 100,000 – about 2%.

- The prevalence of Parkinsons Disease in the United States and Canada is estimated to be about 300 per 100,000 people, or about 3%.

- The Center for Disease Control estimates that as many as 40% of all cases may be undiagnosed.

- Parkinsons is the second most common degenerative disease that affects the nervous system throughout the world. The most common is also age-related – Alzheimer’s Disease.

- More people are affected with this Disease than with Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s Disease combined.

- Because of the increased life expectancy, most government medical bodies believe that the prevalence of the Disease will rise astronomically in the coming decades.

The statistics for hospital admissions related to Parkinsons Disease and related illnesses suggest that it will become a major cost to the health insurance industry in the coming decades.