AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ORGANOPHOSPHATE PESTICIDES EXPOSURE AND PARKINSONISM AMONGST PEOPLE IN AN AGRICULTURAL AREA IN UBON RATCHATHANI PROVINCE,

Background. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a ubiquitous disease. However, PDs prevalence in the population of agricultural communities lacks understanding and there has been no epidemiological study on the association between pesticides ex-posure factors and risk for PD. Objective. To investigate the potential association between organophosphate pesticides exposure and Parkinsonism by using a screening questionnaire in agricultural areas. Material and Methods. Ninety elderly people living in agricultural areas participated in a cross-sectional study conducted at Tambon Hua-Rua Health Promoting Hospital in April 2014. Screening questionnaires for Parkinson’s disease, Test-mate ChE (Model 400) for blood cholinesterase (ChE) levels of both blood enzymes erythrocyte cholinesterase (AChE), and plasma cholinesterase (PChE) were used as measurement tools. Descriptive statistics for frequencies and percentage distributions were used primarily to summarize and describe the data. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated. Results. The age range of the participants was 50 to 59 years old, with an average age of 53.9+2.87 years. The majority of the participants were female (62.2%), 82.2 % of respondents were farmers. Most of participants (76.7%) reported that they applied insecticides in their farms. Ninety persons participated and completed the 11-item questionnaire. Of these, 1