Nonclinical Preventive Measures of Parkinson's Disease (PD): Identifying Key Lifestyle, Demographic, and Environmental Factors

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with a rising global prevalence. While 15–25% of cases are hereditary, the rest are attributed to exogenous factors, such as environmental exposures and lifestyle choices. This study explores the relationships between various environmental, lifestyle, and health-related factors and PD risk via data from the Fox Insight database and analyzes descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and predictive modeling techniques. Key findings show that older age, male sex, lower BMI, unemployment (including both retired and unemployed individuals), and occupational pesticide exposure increase the risk of PD. Interestingly, higher BMI was associated with a reduced risk of PD, suggesting a potential protective effect, althoughthis may be influenced by reverse causality. Additionally, vigorous physical activity was found to be linked with an increased risk of PD, which could also reflect reverse causality, where individuals diagnosed with PD may increase their activity levels in response to their condition. These results highlight important modifiable factors for PD prevention and suggest areas for further research, particularly in understanding the complex interactions among lifestyle factors, environmental exposures, and disease onset.