Association between age at Parkinson's disease onset and divorce: An exploratory analysis from the fox insight cohort.

Authors

Katarzyna Smilowska, Orsolya Makos, Alay Rangel Cristales, Raja Mehanna, Jori Fleisher, Kishore R Kumar, Roy N Alcalay, Mehri Salari, Victor McConvey, Baorong Zhang, Rodolfo Savica, Daniel J Van Wamelen

Published in

Journal of Parkinson's disease. Pages 1877718X261479270. Sep 16, 2026. Epub Sep 16, 2026.

Abstract

BackgroundParkinson's disease (PD) typically presents after age 60; however, approximately 10% of individuals experience early-onset PD (EOPD), with symptoms beginning between ages 21 and 50. Beyond motor and non-motor symptoms, PD can impact personal relationships through stigma, social isolation, and emotional burden. This study aims to examine the influence of PD on relationship outcomes such as divorce or separation.MethodsThis exploratory study analyzed data from the Fox Insight cohort, an online longitudinal research initiative supported by The Michael J. Fox Foundation. We included 470 individuals with self-reported PD who had complete data on marital status ("married" or "divorced") and age at PD onset. Participants were categorized as having EOPD (<50 years) or late-onset PD (≥50 years). Chi-square tests assessed the association between PD onset group and marital status. A binary logistic regression model further evaluated gender and onset age as predictors of marital status in a subset of 330 participants.ResultsA significant association was found between PD onset group and marital status, with a higher divorce rate among the EOPD group (17.5%; 7/40) compared to late-onset PD (6.1%; 26/430) (p = 0.017). Logistic regression revealed no statistically significant predictors, though trends suggested lower odds of divorce in men and those with late-onset PD.ConclusionThis exploratory analysis identified a potential association between early PD onset and higher divorce rates; however, with only 7 events in 40 EOPD participants, this finding is inherently unstable and should be regarded as hypothesis-generating only. Confirmation in larger, longitudinal cohorts is required before any conclusions can be drawn.

PMID:
42746990
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 16 Sep 2026.

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