Do the owners of the golf courses commit the locals who are exposed to the risk of Parkinson’s disease in their search for perfect green? In a medical research journal published in May, the neurologists of Arizona claim that the liberal use of pesticides by golf clubs among neighbors could lead to a Parkinson’s disease.
The paper, published by Jama network, describes how the likelihood of a person in whom Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed is greater: the closer your home speech is at a golf course. People who live within a mile within a mile are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease more often than in six miles away. According to the study, people who share the water service with a golf course are diagnosed twice as often with Parkinson’s as those who do not. The authors suggest that a proposed connection between pesticides and Parkinson’s disease could be responsible.
Environmental effects on Parkinson’s disease
The research team under the direction of Brittany Krzyzanowski, PhD of the Barrow Neurological Institute Phoenix, Arizona, used health records that were harvested from the Rochester Epidemiology Project (project “Rep) To examine the environmental impact on the diagnoses of Parkinson’s diseases.
They examined the prevalence of Parkinson’s over 100 golf courses in Minnesota and Wisconsin to determine whether there was a connection between golf courses and the neurodegenerative disease. They discovered that people with a Parkinson’s diagnosis between 1991 and 2015 lived from a golf course as six miles or more within three miles.
Golf course information
Krzyzanowski and her colleagues concentrated on a certain golf course in Olmstead County, Minnesota to test her hypothesis that pesticides slowly poisoned the green greener thorough seniors to maintain the local golf course.
The researchers sought records of people in whom Parkinson’s in Minnesota and Southern Wisconsin was diagnosed, especially for people who had lived in Olmstead County at the time when their symptoms appeared. The team then looked for people in the region who had similar demographic properties, age and sex, but no Parkinson’s or Parkinson’s disease symptoms.
They found 450 Parkinson’s cases in Olmstead and voted with 9000 checks. This means that between 1991 and 2015, the researchers collected 20 control participants at the same age and in gender in Minnesota or South Wisconsin for each Parkinson’s diagnosis. After checking the participants to ensure that they received enough information about where these people lived, they had 419 Parkinson’s patients and 5,113 control participants.
Most people who were diagnosed Parkinson’s were seniors between the ages of 63 and 80, an average of 73 years old, of 61% male. The control participants became unanimous- their average age was 72 and 59% male. The meantime that the residents had spent their last speech was 18 years old. This is important because if you check the effects of something local, people have to live enough to have an effect.
Calculation of opportunities
The team began to see whether people who were diagnosed Parkinson’s lived near a golf course more often than people without diagnosis.
With a simple comparison, they found that the addresses of people with Parkinson’s Parkinson’s three years or more before they reported that symptoms were praised by golf courses, mainly between 1.7 and 2.7 miles. However, the control participants were more distributed and lived on average between 1.2 and 4.3 miles from the course. This is a fairly small difference at first glance, so the investigators pulled a mulligan and brought some more complicated statistical methods to find out the relationship. This time they compared Parkinson’s prevalence in defined distances from the golf course. Would you find a defined pattern?
When the researchers calculated how many people with Parkinson’s Parkinson’s lived in a certain radius of the golf course compared to the local population, they found that the probability of a person with a Parkinson’s disease decreased by 9% for each mile.
The relationship between Parkinsons and the proximity to a golf course was non -linear, with more people diagnosed within three miles according to connections. The evidence seems to show that in 2015 they will find people with Parkinson’s disease in which lived near a golf course. However, this does not show any cause -effect relationship.
Water mirror.
An argument that is supported by evidence of evidence is beeped by piece, so that the researchers of neurology/epidemiology went over to the next layer of evidence. Since they set up the hypothesis that the problems were more likely to be caused by pesticides than through the golf course itself, the team changed its attention to water supply.
The team speculated that when people were affected by pesticides or herbicides from the golf course, the most likely cause of chemical low ones that were drained into the water. The researchers identified golf courses with vulnerable groundwater; They assumed that water had been washed off at these points and then drained into the water supply.
If you could compare Parkinson’s prices near golf courses with more susceptible groundwater for golf courses with less likely a contaminated water supply, you should have a difference. The team coordinated every address with its tap water supply. Did you get your water from a private fountain on your property, was your water supply from an area near a golf course with vulnerable groundwater or was the nearby golf course in a location that is invulnerable to contaminate?
When the researchers mapped Parkinson’s diagnoses in areas with vulnerable or less vulnerable groundwater, the chances that a person would have the condition by 82%if the golf course was probably outdated to water supply. This increased to an increase of the probability of 92%that a person has a Parkinson’s diagnosis compared to someone who did not live near a golf course.
Interestingly, people who had been watering their water from a municipal fountain on the golf course did not show any increase in the risk that Parkinson’s was diagnosed with people who did not live near a golf course.
Under par or over -motivated?
This sounds like a decent little story, but there are some important restrictions that you have to take into account before throwing your golf clubs or bringing your home onto the market.
First, these are small changes. An increase in chances of winning by 92% only means that the probability in a group is almost twice as high as the other. This does not tell you much about your absolute probability of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. An increase in a small number of 126% is still a small number.
The team did not look at address history more than three years before the diagnosis. If someone moved to Olmstead County with early symptoms in 1989 and she reported in 1991, would that distort the results? How long should someone live near the golf course so that they have influenced their neurological health? If only two to three years of exposure to what the symptoms caused were necessary, shouldn’t we see gardeners and other people who work on the golf course who appear in the region with a Parkinson’s disease in a similar or larger number?
On the other hand, the median time in the area was 18 years, so that at least half of the Parkinson’s patients was exposed to the golf course for a very long time. There are indications that some people have a genetic predisposition that makes them more susceptible to neurodegenerative diseases that are triggered by pesticides. A sub-group of agricultural workers who are exposed to pesticides over a long period of time have reported Parkinson’s-like symptoms, but many other workers do not seem to be affected. The researchers are still looking for paths to struggle for this nodular problem. Are the pesticides and Parkinson’s disease connected?
Confusing variables
The researchers did not lose any groundwater samples and did not collect any data on the pesticides and herbicides used by the golf course. We do not know which herbicides or pesticides were used at this time. In view of the fact that the data is between ten and 34 years old, she does not tell us about the current lifetime talks near a golf course- what have the regulations changed?
It is also important to consider why someone could live near a golf course with an increased risk of a Parkinson’s disease. Golf was exhibited as a rehabilitative potential for Parkinson’s disease and is very popular with seniors to train and make contacts. Could older people who start developing mobility problems to live closer to the golf course so that they can access more easily? Not only that, but the Parkinson’s disease diagnosed the participants a significantly higher household income than the average local person and lived more often in an urban area than people without diagnosis. We are not informed whether there is in Olmstead County or how far they are from the golf course.
The course remains: pesticides and Parkinson’s disease
This research project is a fascinating start to a larger study of how the management of private property can have far -reaching effects on the local population and how environmental protection can reduce serious injuries. We can also give us some references to the trigger for Parkinson’s disease. Is there a subtet of patients who are more susceptible to develop the disease when pesticides come into the mix?
Krzyzanowski B, Mullan Af, Dorsey er, et al. Proximity to golf courses and risk of a Parkinson’s disease. Jama Network Open. 2025; 8 (5): E259198. DOI: 10.1001/Jamanetworkkopen.2025.9198
De Graaf L., Boulanger M., Bureau M. et al. Work pesticide exposure, cancer and chronic neurological disorders: a systematic review of epidemiological studies to Greenspace workers. Approximately. 2022; 203: 111822. DOI: 10.1016/j. Envres.2021.111822
Cash Mf, Ulanowski e, Danzl M. Development of a community-based golf and training program for people with Parkinson’s disease. Supplement to the clinic practices. 2018; 33: 149-155. DOI: 10.1016/j. CCPCP.2018.09.006
Bliss RR, Church Fc. Golf as a physical activity to reduce the risk of falling in older adults with Parkinson’s disease. Sport (Basel). 2021; 9 (6): 72. DOI: 10.3390/Sports9060072