Study type

Study topic

Human medicinal product
Disease /health condition

Study type

Non-interventional study

Scope of the study

Assessment of risk minimisation measure implementation or effectiveness

Data collection methods

Secondary data collection
Non-interventional study

Non-interventional study design

Cohort
Other

Non-interventional study design, other

Retrospective cohort study
Study drug and medical condition

Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) code

(N04BA03) levodopa, decarboxylase inhibitor and COMT inhibitor
(N04BX02) entacapone

Medical condition to be studied

Parkinson's disease
Population studied

Short description of the study population

Population included all males in Finland who have purchased at least one prescription of any Parkinson’s disease medication including entacapone, levodopa/DDCI, monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) inhibitors, and dopamine agonists (DA) during 1998 – 2009.

Age groups

Adolescents (12 to < 18 years)
Adults (18 to < 46 years)
Adults (46 to < 65 years)
Adults (65 to < 75 years)
Adults (75 to < 85 years)
Adults (85 years and over)

Special population of interest

Other

Special population of interest, other

Patients with Parkinson's disease

Estimated number of subjects

16000
Study design details

Main study objective

The primary objective of this study is to compare the incidence rates of developing prostate cancer between group 1 and group 2 where group 1 = treatment with levodopa/DDCI with entacapone +/- DA and/or MAO-B inhibitor, and group 2 = treatment with levodopa /DDCI without entacapone +/- DA and/or MAO-B inhibitor.

Outcomes

Time from the start of follow-up to the first prostate cancer detected. Time from the start of follow-up to death caused by prostate cancer.

Data analysis plan

Comparisons between the treatment groups will be performed by means of hazard ratios (HRs). The HR estimates with 95% CIs will be estimated using the conventional Cox’s proportional hazards model with adjustments for relevant baseline variables and time-dependent variables. The following variables will be considered as potential confounders in these analyses: age group, time since PD diagnosis, PD and BHP treatment history, hospital district, concurrent use of BHP treatments (e.g. finasteride), duration of earlier levodopa/DDCI treatment, and recent changes in PD add-on treatments.
Documents
Study results
English (1.35 MB - PDF)View document