Correlation of COVID-19 with Parkinson’s disease and life expectancy indicates female population predominance in future

Abstract

Neurological diseases are prevalent in the populations from the developed nations including Europe and North America, while South America also shows a high prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD). Although. PD is among the most prevalent neurodegenerative conditions, its cause remains largely unknown. Changing age structure and marked demographic shifts, with progressively larger percentage of their populations entering old age, has been seen in many countries. Females have been found to have a higher life expectancy and longevity than males at any age. We compiled the freely available data on COVID-19, and statistics on life expectancy, and ageing population from the United Nations. The XY-scatter plots with regression analysis were used to assess the correlation between case fatality rate (CFR)/deaths and life expectancy of various countries. We infer that the SARS-00V-2 mediated infections mostly affected the elderly people of age 60+years, who accounted for approximately 50% (20-88.45%) of the total deaths by COVID-19. However, females were found to be 1.66 times less prone to COVID-19-induced deaths compared to the males. The X Y-scatter plot showed no correlation between life expectancy and CFR or deaths due to COVID-19. Similar patterns of CFR/deaths by COVID-19 and PD prevalence were also observed in Europe and America. All the factual data including increased susceptibility of males to COVID-19 and PD, along with relatively less life expectancy than females, indicate that the world may virtually be heading towards a predominantly female older population. However, caution may be exercised in interpreting the results of this preliminary study that may be affected by incorrect or biased reporting on COVID-19 data, regional variations in the infectivity by new mutant strains of SARC-COV-2, and the prevalence and epidemiology of PD and COVID-19 might also affect the associated risk factors for PD in certain population.