Objective: To investigate the prevalence and mortality of Covid-19 among parkinsonism patients in addition to worsening of motor symptoms of these patients.

Background: Parkinsonism can be categorized as Multiple system atrophy (MSA), Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and Corticobasal syndrome (CBS). These patients may be at increased risk of Covid-19 and its complications because of the nature of the disease, multiple age‐related comorbidities, and limited access to their routine medical care due to the prolonged quarantine.

Method: Sixty-eight patients with Parkinsonism were monitored frequently for the last two years (2018-2020). These patients were also evaluated on January 2021, several months after the first Covid-19 case was reported. During telemonitoring, the patients or their families were asked about the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 infection or subsequent mortality in parkinsonism patients. A control group including 233 individuals was considered for this study. The prevalence of Covid-19 and its mortality among parkinsonism patients were calculated, and they were compared between different parkinsonism subgroups or the parkinsonism patients and the control group.

Results: The prevalence of Covid-19 in Parkinsonism patients was 15.02%. There was not a significant difference between the prevalence of Covid-19 in PSP and MSA patients (p-value>0.1). Twelve patients (17.64%) died during the course of the pandemic, while none of the patients died before the pandemic, during 2018 and 2019 (9 patients with PSP, 2 patients with MSA, and one patient with unspecified Parkinsonism). The mortality of PSP patients (22.5%) was not significantly different from that of MSA patients (9.52%) (p-value>0.05). Twenty-Three Parkinsonism patients reported worsening of motor symptoms during the pandemic. The difference between the rate of worsening of motor symptoms in the patients with parkinsonism who had and had not Covid-19 was not statistically significant (p-value≈0.0506), and also there was not a significant difference between the rate of worsening of motor symptoms in PSP and MSA patients.

Conclusion: Our observation suggests that parkinsonism patients may be at higher risk of mortality during the Covid-19 mortality due to direct or indirect effects of the current condition; however, the prevalence of Covid-19 in Parkinsonism patients is not different from healthy individuals.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/how-covid-19-would-affect-parkinsonism-patients-mortality/