Parkinson's Disease - Who Gets Parkinson's Disease?
About 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease each year, with more than half a million Americans affected at any one time. Getting an accurate count of the number of cases may be impossible however, because many people in the early stages of the disease assume their symptoms are the result of normal aging and do not seek help from a physician. Also, diagnosis is sometimes difficult and uncertain because other conditions may produce some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. People with Parkinson's disease may be told by their doctors that they have other disorders or, conversely, people with similar diseases may be initially diagnosed as having Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease strikes men and women in almost equal numbers and it knows no social, economic, or geographic boundaries. Some studies show that African-Americans and Asians are less likely than whites to develop Parkinson's disease. Scientists have not been able to explain this apparent lower incidence in certain populations. It is reasonable to assume, however, that all people have a similar probability of developing the disease.
Age, however, clearly correlates with the onset of symptoms. Parkinson's disease is a disease of late middle age, usually affecting people over the age of 50. The average age of onset is 60 years. However, some physicians have reportedly noticed more cases of "early-onset" Parkinson's disease in the past several years, and some have estimated that 5 to 10 percent of patients are under the age of 40.
