Socioeconomic area deprivation and its relationship with dementia, Parkinson's Disease and all-cause mortality among UK older adults: a multistate modeling approach

Abstract

The study analyzed the association of area-level socioeconomic status (SES) with the risk of all-cause dementia, Parkinson's Disease (PD), and all-cause mortality using a multistate approach. Data from the UK Biobank were used (N = 363,663 50+y individuals, ≤15y follow-up), and Cox proportional hazards and multistate parametric models including Weibull regression were conducted, while cardiovascular health was tested as a potential mediator. In multistate models, socioeconomic area-level deprivation, measured by the Townsend Deprivation Index (TDI) z-score, was positively associated with the hazard of going from healthy into the 3 states of PD, dementia, and all-cause mortality (i.e. transitions 1: HR = 1.06, 95 % CI:1.02–1.10, P = 0.005, 2: HR = 1.19, 95 % CI: 1.16–1.22, P < 0.001 and 3: HR = 1.19, 95 % CI: 1.18–1.21, P < 0.001), with no association detected for transitions 4 (PD→Dementia), 5 (PD→Death), or 6 (Dementia→Death). Cardiovascular health did not mediate these associations. Socioeconomic area-level deprivation was directly associated with reduced survival rates from Healthy into Dementia, PD and Death.