Daily steps are a predictor of, but perhaps not a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease: findings from the UK Biobank
Previous studies link lower physical activity with incident Parkinson's disease (PD) but rely on self-reported data and fail to address reverse causation. This study used accelerometer-derived daily step count, an objective measure of physical activity, to examine its association with incident PD in the UK Biobank, within successive periods of follow-up. PD cases were identified through hospital inpatient and death data, and associated with machine learning-derived step counts using Cox regression models, adjusted for age, sex, demographic and lifestyle factors. For 94,696 valid participants and a median follow-up of 7.9 years, 407 incident PD cases occurred. Every 1000 steps higher were associated with 8% lower risk of PD (hazard ratio 0.92, 95% confidence interval 0.89-0.94). However, this association was no longer statistically significant when excluding follow-up periods closer to the time of accelerometer wear, suggesting that low activity may be an early marker, but not a risk factor for PD.
Authors
- Charlie Harper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0134-9832)
- Aidan Acquah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3241-1280)
- Valentin Hamy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9411-4751)
- Alaina H. Shreves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0127-4391)
- Chrystalina A. Antoniades (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1192-3834)
- Derrick Bennett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9170-8447)
- Stefan van Duijvenboden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8897-558X)
- Andrew P. Creagh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6086-6098)
- Aiden Doherty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1840-0451)
- Charilaos Zisou
- David A. Clifton
Institutions
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Nuffield Health (GB)
- Suzhou Research Institute (CN)
- National Cancer Institute (US)
- Health Data Research UK (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Parkinson s Disease
- Published
- 2025-11-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-025-01214-6
- Primary Topic
- Physical Activity and Health
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Wellcome Trust
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- British Heart Foundation
- Royal Academy of Engineering
- University of Oxford
- Novo Nordisk
- National Institutes of Health
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- UCB Pharma