Texas Christian University Parkinson’s disease researcher Chris Watts is working on
yet another project to inform public health.
Watts, Marilyn & Morgan Davies Dean of the Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences,
has gathered preliminary data for a new line of research on the growing disease.
Watts is collaborating with Sean Young, a medical geographer from the University of
Texas Southwestern.
“We were able to obtain state-level data from Texas Outpatient Public Use Data File
from the Texas Department of State Health Services’ Center for Health Statistics Texas
Health Care Information Collection, which contained diagnosis codes for individuals
seen in outpatient facilities over the course of 10 years,” said Watts. “We compared
the incidence of Parkinson’s based on those diagnosis codes in 2012 to 2022 in people
aged 65 or older. We found that the rate of Parkinson’s increased from 4.28 per 100,000 people
in 2012 to 10.9 per 100,000 people in 2022 for those ages 65 and over. That is a staggering
increase.”
Watts stresses that the preliminary work has not been published or peer-reviewed,
but that the team is working toward that with the goal that the information will inform
public health in the state of Texas and potentially inform state government on resources
they allocate toward health care.
Watts, Harris College and TCU’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease have made Parkinson’s
a primary focus through research, the Zoota Family Leaders in Parkinson’s Disease
Speaker Series, ENDeavor PARKINSONology and other efforts.
Learn more.
Texas Department of State Health Services