Risk and mortality of aspiration pneumonia in Parkinson’s disease: a nationwide database study

Abstract This retrospective cohort study investigated the risk and mortality rate due to aspiration pneumonia in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) using a nationwide database. We identified 10,159 newly diagnosed PD patients between 2004 and 2006, and four age- and sex-matched controls for each PD patient from the National Health Insurance Service database in Korea. We analyzed the relative risk of aspiration pneumonia and mortality after the first occurrence of aspiration pneumonia until 2017. Throughout the study period, PD patients showed a higher incidence of aspiration pneumonia than their matched controls (3.01 vs. 0.59 events per 1,000 person-years), and they were at an increased risk of aspiration pneumonia (hazard ratio = 4.21; 95% confidence interval, 3.87–4.58). After the first occurrence of aspiration pneumonia, the mortality rate of PD patients was 23.9% after one month, 65.2% after 1 year, and 91.8% after 5 years, while that of controls was 30.9%, 67.4%, and 88.9%, respectively. Patients with PD are at an increased risk of aspiration pneumonia, and approximately two-thirds of the patients die within a year after experiencing aspiration pneumonia. Further studies are warranted to prevent aspiration pneumonia and implement proper treatments to prevent death after aspiration pneumonia in patients with PD.