Herpes Zoster and Risk of Incident Parkinson's Disease in US Veterans: A Matched Cohort Study

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough some systemic infections are associated with Parkinson's disease (PD), the relationship between herpes zoster (HZ) and PD is unclear.ObjectiveThe objective is to investigate whether HZ is associated with incident PD risk in a matched cohort study using data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs.MethodsWe compared the risk of PD between individuals with incident HZ matched to up to five individuals without a history of HZ using Cox proportional hazards regression. In sensitivity analyses, we excluded early outcomes.ResultsAmong 198,099 individuals with HZ and 976,660 matched individuals without HZ (median age 67.0 years (interquartile range [IQR 61.4–75.7]); 94% male; median follow‐up 4.2 years [IQR 1.9–6.6]), HZ was not associated with an increased risk of incident PD overall (adjusted HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.90–1.01) or in any sensitivity analyses.ConclusionWe found no evidence that HZ was associated with increased risk of incident PD in this cohort. © 2024 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.