Filipinos and Parkinson's disease: A scoping review of the literature

Abstract

Background: Filipinos are the third largest sub-group of Asian Americans in the United States and have greater socioeconomic and health disparities than many other Asian sub-groups [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Characteristics of Filipino patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) have not been adequately studied.

Objective: To scope the extent, range and nature of current knowledge on PD in Filipino-American (FA) patients in contrast to Filipino patients in general.

Methods: We undertook a scoping review including all types of research relating to PD in Filipinos. We searched the following electronic databases: MEDLINE via PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, Herdin and Journals@OVID (searched 1944-November 2024). Criteria for inclusion were peer-reviewed empirical articles published in English that specifically included and described Filipino patients with PD. We reviewed all eligible articles and categorized them by general topical themes.

Results: The scoping review resulted in 48 eligible papers (Fig. 1). There were 7 papers that discussed PD in FA, and 35 papers that discussed PD in the Philippines. The main themes identified from the scoping review were: epidemiology/etiology (n = 19, 39 %), clinical manifestations and management (n = 20, 42 %), and access to PD care (n = 9, 19 %).

Conclusion: There is a paucity of information on PD in the FA population, with the majority of studies from the Philippines. Further studies on FA in the US, when compared to the studies from the Philippines, may shed light on how differences in the environment and sociodemographic factors may influence the nature and course of PD.

Keywords: Asian American; Filipino; Parkinson's disease.