Association between different diabetes medication classes and risk of Parkinson's disease in people with diabetes

PURPOSE: Diabetes has been associated with increased risk of Parkinson's disease (PD). Diabetes medications have been suggested as a possible explanation, but findings have been inconsistent. More information on the role of exposure in different time windows is needed because PD has long onset. We assessed the association between use of different diabetes medication categories and risk of PD in different exposure periods. METHODS: A case–control study restricted to people with diabetes was performed as part of nationwide register‐based Finnish study on PD (FINPARK). We included 2017 cases (diagnosed 1999–2015) with PD and 7934 controls without PD. Diabetes medication use was identified from Prescription Register (1995–2015) and categorized to insulins, biguanides, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones (TZDs), dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP‐4) inhibitors, glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) analogues and glinide. Exposure for each medication class was determined as none, at least 3 years before outcome and only within the three‐year lag time before PD outcome. RESULTS: The use of insulins, biguanides, sulfonylureas, DPP‐4 inhibitors, GLP‐1 analogues or glinides was not associated with PD. Use of TZDs before lag time compared to non‐use of TZDs (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.78; 95% Confidence interval (CI) 0.64–0.95) was associated with decreased risk of PD. CONCLUSIONS: Our nationwide case–control study of people with diabetes found no robust evidence on the association between specific diabetes medication classes and risk of PD. Consistent with earlier studies, TZD use was associated with slightly decreased risk of PD. The mechanism for this should be verified in further studies.