According to this data, richer countries have more occurrences of PD. Is this due to toxic pollution or lack of diagnosis capability?

[Grumpy77]

With the exception of Russian and China this data clearly shows that the more industrialized and the richer the country's economy is, the higher the cases and occurrences of Parkinson's disease

(To put the data in perspective IMHO, the exception of Russian and China is no surprise as there might be so much propaganda going on here as the initial coronavirus cases cover-up reveals... but I don't want to get into the politics of this as that's not the subject or purpose of this thread)

worldlifeexpectancy.com/cau...

The broader question to ask here is: is it some toxic pollution of the industrialized advanced economies that is the cause of PD (hence reflects in this data) OR is it lack of advanced medical facilities and inadequate diagnosis capabilities (hence poor medical facilities) in the poorer or relatively poorer countries that screws up the data and gives the illusion that richer countries have their environment to blame?

[Hidden]

The data looks dodgy. I tried to replicate it on the WHO site (the supposed source) and couldn't. I think collecting PD 'cause of death' stats would be full of error, since PWP usually die of pneumonia.

Age is a major PD variable, so anywhere where people die younger on average will be expected to have lower PD rates, ceteris paribus. So basically the entire African continent, much of South Asia, and the Middle east as they are largely already dead before PD kicks on a large scale.

Genes, too, which why Asians and Blacks (even those that have grown up in the west) seem to have (significantly) lower PD rates. Environmental factors are difficult to assess. You frequently read about clusters of PD driven by some algae in a lake somewhere, or pesticide usage (which could happen outside of heavily industrialised areas) so hard to say.

As you say, diagnosis is a big one. My grandmother died in her 80s about a decade ago. Looking back, she had a fairly classic case of non-tremor PD. Was never diagnosed as such, and this was a middle class woman living in a top-10 Human Development Index country. Can only imagine what dx is like in Angola etc .

[Astra7]

I think it’s just diagnosed more in some countries, though I was interested to see Malta on there as I lived there until aged 7 and have no idea why I have PD. Could there be something in the water??

[LAJ12345]

Over indulgence in animal based food is my guess

[Tribselyov]

People in Rich countries get diagnoses; poor ones just get “old”.... probably true at city level also