An article published in Environmental Health Perspectives (click here for the article) examines the role of early life risk factors in Parkinson’s disease. This is a review article that was completed by the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. The author reviews the current Parkinson’s disease epidemiology literature and then concludes with a nice summary, including suggestions on the direction of future research.
The epidemiologic studies that are reviewed include the following topics: Infections in Early Life, Place of Birth, Toxic Exposure Early in Life, Coffee, Smoking and Personality Trait, and Familial Aggregation Studies.
This is a fairly brief and easy to read article that gives a comprehensive view of the current epidemiological research completed on the etiology of Parkinson’s disease.