Frequent falls an early sign of Parkinson's: study

London: Parkinson's patients have a higher risk of injurious falls and hip fractures up to 26 years before a diagnosis of the disease, a new study has claimed.

The higher proportion of fall-related injuries can partly be explained by reduced balance, which could be a significant early sign of the illness, researchers said.

Researchers from Umea University in Sweden investigated if male patients with Parkinson's disease had low muscle strength in the arms already at the time of military enrolment in early adulthood.

Parkinson's disease, which breaks down specific nerve cells and is usually diagnosed at around the age of 70, has an insidious onset and at first mostly affects mobility and balance.

The study examined health data from all Swedes who were 50 years or older in 2005 (3.3 million).

Out of these, 24,412 were diagnosed with Parkinson's in the period of 1988-2012, and these individuals were matched against ten people each in the control group.

Researchers found that 18 per cent of all Parkinson's patients (before diagnosis) and 11.5 per cent of controls had at least one fall-related injury.

The study found a reduced muscular strength in the arms on average already 30 years prior to Parkinson's diagnosis.

Based on these results, it was investigated if this reduced muscular strength also could be associated with an increased risk of injurious falls and hip fractures.

The results showed that early changes manifested in a reduced muscular strength also seem to result in an increased risk of injurious falls and fractures several years before diagnosis.

The correlation also showed signs of the gradual dysfunctional balance reactions and impaired mobility being present at a much earlier stage, although it has previously been thought to happen in relatively late stages of Parkinson's.

"By investigating health data from registers, we could see a correlation between individuals who were later diagnosed with Parkinson's and who were more often involved in injurious falls," said Helena Nystrom from Umea University.

"It was also shown that the higher risk of hip fractures could be measured more than two decades before the diagnosis," she added.

Injurious falls are a serious health risk and hip fractures are a common contributing factor to early death among the older population, researchers said.

The risk of hip fractures are especially high in people with Parkinson's, something which is likely caused by reduced balance and incapability of rotating the body in the event of a fall in order to protect the hip, they said.

The findings were published in the journal PLOS Medicine.