Objective: To highlight differences in clinical disease parameters between sexes in a cohort of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.

Background: PD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by motor symptoms, gastrointestinal dysfunction, impairment of cognition, mood, social function, and chronic pain. There is an apparent disproportionate disease prevalence between males and females (approximately 2/3:1/3 respectively). However, sex differences in disease presentation and progression remain incompletely characterised.

Method: 103 PD patients (45 Female, 58 Male) recruited from a Sydney, Australia, movement disorder clinic, completed PD-validated questionnaires to determine sex-dependent associations between a variety of motor, non-motor and quality of life (QoL) measures.

Results: Women had a younger age at PD diagnosis and a longer disease duration. They were also more likely to experience dyskinesias and motor fluctuations and were more likely to receive levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel therapy. Women also reported worse mobility, social supports, bodily discomfort, in addition to worse overall QoL (determined by the Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire-39, Summary Index). Furthermore, social functioning was more impaired in women. On the other hand, men reported increased cognitive impairment, greater attention and memory deficits (determined by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment) and increased sexual and urinary dysfunction. No demographic, disease severity (UPDRS-III), or daily levodopa dose differences were identified between the sexes.

Conclusion: We report important real-life sex differences in PD, highlighting clinical management implications. Future strategies should focus on improving women’s QoL, particularly pain and social supports, whilst men would benefit from improved treatment approaches to cognitive and genitourinary dysfunction.

This abstract is partially reproduced from a planned presentation at the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists, Annual Society Meeting, Melbourne, Australia, 19^th-22^nd May 2020

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