People may be paying a hidden price for living close to a golf course. Recent research has found a link between golf courses and greater odds of developing Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic and others conducted the study, published this month in JAMA Network Open. They found that people who lived in close proximity to golf courses had a higher risk of Parkinson’s than similar residents who lived farther away. The researchers argue that the pesticides used to maintain these courses are likely a major reason behind the connection—an argument that other experts are taking seriously.
Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative condition that progressively worsens people’s motor function (in the later stages, it often affects cognition as well). It’s thought to affect nearly a million Americans today, with almost 100,000 new cases diagnosed annually. Most cases are thought to be caused by a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors, which can include exposure to toxins like pesticides. Past studies have suggested that living or working next to areas where pesticides are routinely applied is linked to a higher risk for Parkinson’s. But according to the study researchers, there hasn’t been much work done to understand the potential risk of living near golf courses specifically.
The authors used data from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, established by the Mayo Clinic and others in 1966. The project has followed the health of residents in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin for many years, including whether they were ever diagnosed with Parkinson’s. They compared people in the project who were diagnosed with Parkinson’s between 1991 and 2015 to controls matched in age and sex, in what’s known as a case-control study.
The closer that someone lived to one of the 139 golf courses located in the regions covered by the project (or who shared water services with a golf course), the more likely they were to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s, the researchers found. After accounting for other factors, they calculated that living within one mile (1.6 kilometers) of a golf course was associated with a 126% increase in risk of Parkinson’s compared to people who lived six or more miles (9 km) away. Residents who shared water services with a golf course also had almost twice the odds of developing Parkinson’s as those who didn’t.
“This is an important and well-designed population-based study that adds meaningful data to our growing understanding of environmental contributors to Parkinson’s disease,” Michael S. Okun, national medical advisor for the Parkinson’s Foundation, who is not affiliated with the research, told Gizmodo in an email.
Okun, who is also the director of the Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at the University of Florida, cautions that this study cannot show a causative link between golf course proximity and a higher risk of Parkinson’s. But he notes that certain toxins commonly used as pesticides, such as paraquat, maneb, and chlorpyrifos, are known to be toxic to the brain, and some research has linked their use to increased Parkinson’s cases. Since golf courses require “intensive chemical maintenance,” he adds, it’s biologically plausible that these chemicals can contaminate the local water supply or otherwise reach people in the surrounding area and raise their Parkinson’s risk.
Svjetlana Miocinovic, an associate professor in the Department of Neurology at Emory University’s School of Medicine, also wasn’t surprised by the study’s results, though she notes that this shouldn’t be the last word on the topic.
“The study was done in one geographic region so results need to be replicated in a larger cohort and other geographic areas, but the study highlights the importance of environmental factors in Parkinson’s disease,” Miocinovic, who is not affiliated with the study, told Gizmodo in an email.
While more work is needed to understand the exact risks posed by golf courses and accompanying pesticide use, Okun argues that we know enough to take action already by limiting people’s exposures to these chemicals whenever possible.
“This study is a wake-up call,” he said. “Parkinson’s disease is the world’s fastest growing neurodegenerative disorder, and we are spending pennies on the dollar for prevention. The real takeaway here is that we need to stop viewing Parkinson’s as an inevitable consequence of aging and start treating it as a potentially preventable condition.”