Exposure to pesticides in agriculture and Parkinson's disease in users of a public health

Paula Renata Olegini Vasconcellos's study analyzes the association between pesticide exposure and Parkinson's disease occurrence. The cross-sectional case series includes data from 48 identified individuals, with 32 interviewed, collected from the University Hospital of Western Paraná's neurology outpatient clinic between 2012 and 2017. Results suggest a possible link, with 74.98% of interviewed individuals reporting pesticide contact.

Use Cases

• Assessing the association between agricultural activity and Parkinson's disease based on reported life-long agricultural activity.
• Analyzing the latency period between pesticide exposure and symptom onset based on the reported time elapsed of over 20 years for 75% of cases.
• Investigating demographic risk factors based on reported patient characteristics like age (87.48% elderly) and education level (53.13% low education).
• Cataloging types of pesticides linked to health outcomes based on the 16 different pesticides mentioned by participants.

Strengths

• Data includes specific demographic breakdowns, such as 87.48% of interviewed individuals being elderly and 53.13% having low education.
• Provides quantified exposure details, including that 74.98% of interviewed individuals had contact with pesticides and 50% of those had direct contact.
• Captures temporal relationship, noting that for 75% of exposed cases, the time between exposure and symptom onset was longer than 20 years.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to a single hospital in Paraná, Brazil.

Provenance

Source

Paula Renata Olegini Vasconcellos via paperswithcode.

Collection Method

Cross-sectional case series survey with data collected from hospital electronic systems and patient interviews.

Time Range

2012 to 2017

Geography

Paraná, Brazil (specifically the University Hospital of Western Paraná)