The Mediterranean diet has been associated with the risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD),
but limited research has been performed on other dietary patterns. We studied the relationship
between overall diet quality and PD risk in the general population. We included 9414 participants
from the Rotterdam Study, a prospective population-based study in the Netherlands. Diet was
defined using a Dutch diet quality score, a Mediterranean diet score and data-driven dietary patterns
constructed with principal component analysis (PCA). During an average follow-up of 14.1 years,
PD was diagnosed in 129 participants. We identified a ‘Prudent’, ‘Unhealthy’ and ‘Traditional Dutch’
pattern from the PCA. We found a possible association between the Mediterranean diet (Hazard
ratio (HR) per standard deviation (SD) 0.89 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.74–1.07)), the ‘Prudent’
pattern (HR per SD 0.81 (95% CI 0.61–1.08)) and the risk of PD. However, no associations with PD
risk were found for the Dutch diet quality score (HR per SD 0.93 (95% CI 0.77–1.12)), the ‘Unhealthy’
pattern (HR per SD 1.05 (95% CI 0.85–1.29)) or the ‘Traditional Dutch’ pattern (HR per SD 0.90 (95%
CI 0.69–1.17)). In conclusion, our results corroborate previous findings of a possible protective effect
of the Mediterranean diet. Further research is warranted to study the effect of other dietary patterns
on PD risk. CLICK TO REVIEW
Keywords: diet quality; Parkinson’s disease; cohort study; risk factors; etiology