The Polygenic Risk Score for Parkinson’s Disease Is Associated with Becoming a Medical Doctor or Dentist

TL;DR

People with a higher genetic risk for Parkinson's disease are more likely to become doctors or dentists, possibly due to shared genetic factors linked to higher education.

Contribution

This study identifies a genetic link between Parkinson's disease risk and the likelihood of pursuing medical or dental careers.

Findings

A higher Parkinson's disease polygenic risk score is associated with being a medical doctor or dentist.

The PD PRS is also linked to higher education levels in both job history and current job samples.

The association remains after adjusting for confounding variables.

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Multiple independent studies indicate an association between the occupations of medical doctors and dentists and the risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD). This study tried to evaluate the associations between a polygenic risk score (PRS) for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and medical career (medical doctor/dentist). Methods: This population-based cross-sectional study used data from the UK Biobank. A total of 92,566 and 166,531 men and women aged 38–73 years, recruited between 2006 and 2010, were included in the analyses of job history and current job, respectively (separate samples). Odds risks for the jobs of medical doctors and dentists were estimated using logistic regression. A PRS of polymorphisms previously shown to predict PD best was constructed and associated with the job history of medical doctors/dentists in the first analysis and with current medical doctor/dentist jobs in the second analysis after regressing out confounding variables. Results: A high PD PRS was associated with employment as a medical doctor or dentist for both the 92,566 individuals with job history data, with an increase of 1 standardized deviation (p = 0.006), and current employment as medical doctors/dentists among the 166,531 individuals without job history data but with current job data. Furthermore, a higher PD PRS was associated with higher education in both samples. Conclusions: These results suggest that PD has shared genetic routes with a propensity for higher education and becoming medical doctors/dentists.

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