Association Between Relative Fat Mass and Parkinson's Disease in American Adults: A Large Cross-Sectional Study From NHANES.

Abstract

Background: Numerous studies have sought to investigate the link between obesity and Parkinson's disease (PD), yielding conflicting results. Relative fat mass (RFM) is a novel obesity indicator, yet its association with PD in American adults remains unexplored. This study was designed to explore the potential relationship between RFM and PD in American adults aged 40 and older.

Methods: In the present study, we ultimately included 26, 029 participants from the NHANES (1999-2018). In order to evaluate the association between RFM and PD in American adults aged 40 and older, we performed multivariate logistic regression analysis, restricted cubic spline analysis, subgroup analysis, and sensitivity analysis. Furthermore, we conducted receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to evaluate the predictive performance of RFM for PD.

Results: Of the 26, 029 participants who were included in the study, 245 participants (0.94%) were identified as having PD. After full adjustment for confounding variables, the multivariate models demonstrated a significant positive association between RFM and PD (odds ratio [OR] = 1.40; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.11 - 1.77). Specifically, participants in the highest RFM quartile (Q4) had a significantly higher prevalence of PD compared with those in the lowest quartile (Q1) in model II (OR = 2.71, 95% CI: 1.48-4.96). Additionally, subgroup analyses demonstrated that the positive correlation between RFM and PD was significantly more prominent in individuals under the age of 60 (p for interaction < 0.05). Finally, ROC curve analysis showed that RFM yielded a higher AUC value of 0.612 in participants under the age of 60.

Conclusions: This study is the first to demonstrate a positive linear association between RFM and PD among American adults aged 40 and older.