select search filters
briefings
roundups & rapid reactions
Fiona fox's blog

expert reaction to study looking at Parkinson’s Disease risk and proximity to golf courses

A study published in JAMA Network Open looks at proximity to Golf Courses and the risk of Parkinson’s Disease.

 

Prof David Dexter, Director of Research, Parkinson’s UK, said: 

“This study suggests an association between pesticides and Parkinson’s, however there are some important limitations in the methodology to be aware of. Firstly, Parkinson’s starts in the brain 10-15 years before diagnosis and the study didn’t only use subjects who permanently lived in the area. This would not only affect participants’ exposure, but also suggests their Parkinson’s could have started before they moved around a golf course. The population was also not matched for location with 80% of the Parkinson’s subjects living in urban areas, compared to only 30% of controls, hence other factors like air pollution from motor vehicles etc could also account for some of the increases in Parkinson’s incidence. Additionally, no analysis was made of the drinking water for pesticide levels. Once again, this lessens the validity of the claim of pesticide exposure because the studies have not been carefully controlled.”

 

Dr Katherine Fletcher, Research Lead at Parkinson’s UK, said:

“Parkinson’s is complex. The causes of the condition are unclear and are likely to involve both genetic and environmental factors. Many studies have investigated whether pesticides increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s in different populations around the world. The results have been varied, but overall suggest that exposure to pesticides may increase the risk of the condition. However, the evidence is not strong enough to show that pesticide exposure directly causes Parkinson’s. This study supports the association between pesticides and Parkinson’s. However, it’s quite reductive and doesn’t take into account how someone might have been exposed to pesticides at their workplace or whether they have a genetic link to the condition.

“In Europe and the UK, the use of pesticides are strictly controlled, and some – like paraquat – are banned, due to concerns about their wider health and environmental impacts. So, the risk of exposure to these for most people is extremely low.”

 

 

 

Proximity to Golf Courses and Risk of Parkinson Disease’ by Krzyzanowski et al. was published in JAMA Network Open at 16:00 UK time on Thursday 08th May 2025.

 

DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.9198

 

 

Declared interests

Prof David Dexter: “The author declares that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence their comment reported in this article.”

Dr Katherine Fletcher:The author declares that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence their comment reported in this article.”

in this section

filter RoundUps by year

search by tag