Hair color, family history of melanoma, and the risk of Parkinson's disease: An analysis update

Mario H Flores-Torres; Kjetil Bjornevik; Xinyuan Zhang; Xiang Gao; Albert Y Hung; Michael A Schwarzschild; Xiqun Chen; Alberto Ascherio

doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2023.105965

Hair color, family history of melanoma, and the risk of Parkinson's disease: An analysis update

Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2024 Feb:119:105965. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2023.105965. Epub 2023 Dec 21.

Authors

Mario H Flores-Torres¹, Kjetil Bjornevik², Xinyuan Zhang³, Xiang Gao⁴, Albert Y Hung⁵, Michael A Schwarzschild⁶, Xiqun Chen⁵, Alberto Ascherio⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: maflores@hsph.harvard.edu.
² Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Institute of Nutrition, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁶ MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁷ Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 38142631
PMCID: PMC10843649 (available on 2025-02-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2023.105965

Abstract

Background: A shared biological component between melanoma and Parkinson's disease (PD) has been suggested. Yet, epidemiological evidence is scarce.

Objective: To examine the association of hair color and family history of melanoma, two strong predictors of melanoma risk, with the occurrence of PD.

Methods: We followed 131,342 women and men for ∼30 years for the development of PD. We calculated the cumulative incidence of PD from ages 40 to 90 according to hair color, and estimated the hazard ratio of PD according to hair color and family history of melanoma.

Results: Hair color was not strongly associated with the risk of PD, especially at advanced ages. In contrast, individuals with a family history of melanoma had a 1.4-fold higher risk of PD compared to those without a history.

Conclusions: Our results support the hypothesis of a shared biological component between PD and melanoma. Both pigmentary and non-pigmentary pathways may play a role.

MeSH terms

Female
Hair Color / genetics
Humans
Incidence
Male
Melanoma* / epidemiology
Melanoma* / genetics
Parkinson Disease* / complications
Parkinson Disease* / epidemiology
Parkinson Disease* / genetics
Risk Factors

Abstract

MeSH terms

Grants and funding