Bob
Good questions!! I can answer the questions concerning the technical aspects
but not why a gross misinterpretation of the data occurred. Maybe it has to do
with what is put on the death certificates and how the data is analyzed. I have
not read the article but what I presume they did was start with a group of say
500 patients with the documented diagnosis of PD and then developed a list of
of age and sex matched controls- that is people who are from a similar
population but without PD So if I were in the study (which can be done with
charts only) my control would be a 54 year old male not screened for anything
else but the absence of PD. They could be out running marathons or in the ICU
dying of lung cancer. The 2 groups - the 500 with PD and the 500 controls
without PD -are then followed for a fixed period- usually 1 year. At the end
of that time they count up how many in each group have died of ALL CAUSES.
whether aspiration pneumonia, heart attack or shot by an acquaintance on a
LISTSERV who he disagreed with once too often. .
Now to your questions-
bobdolezal wrote:
> Charlie - I was hoping you would articulate a bit on the findings, like,
> explaining "mortality." "Two to five times as high" - huh?
>
> Does it mean, if the normal 60 year old man has a projected life-span of 16
> more years (just an eg.), that the same man, but with PD, would have a
> life-span projected at from 8 years ("two" times as high) to 3.2 years
> ("five" times as highi)?
No not exactly. Mortality rate means of people in a particular population- who
die (usually expressed as deaths per 100,000 per year). The results indicate
that from someone with PD is 2 to 8 times more likely to die of any cause than
someone of the same age without PD. They undoubtedly analyze it further using
factors like age and duration since diagnosis.
>
>
> If it does mean this, one wonders why, for so long, we were told that PD
> doesn't shorten life. I was told that, just 6 years ago. Clearly, what I
> was told - what most or all of us were told - was erroneous. Couldn't the
> docs see their patients dropping like flies around them, at a much faster
> rate than their non-PD friends of the same age?
>
> Just curious.
>
> Bob Dolezal
I doubt that we are "dropping like flies" but since the causes are varied and
most of the advanced PD population are at the age when death from other causes
is relatively common it doesn't stand out.
I'm glad someone has documented what we all have concluded.
I hope this clarifies the definitions and the methodology if not the
motivations for the original misinterpretation of the data.
Charlie
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Charles T. Meyer, M.D.
Middleton (Madison), Wisconsin
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