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The Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Essential Tremor in Elderly Chineses: A Population-Based Study

  • Published:
The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate the prevalence and the clinical feature of essential tremor (ET) in a community cohort in Beijing.

Methods

Using a door-to-door, two-phase approach, we investigated 2,835 residents aged ≥55 years old from rural, urban, and mountain areas.

Results

The prevalence rate of ET was 4.29%, 2.85%, and 2.29% in rural, urban, and mountain areas, respectively. The overall age- and sex-adjusted prevalence was 3.29%. Among those aged ≥75 years, the prevalence rate in the urban area was higher than those in the rural and mountain areas. The prevalence rate increased with age, and the prevalence was higher among men (6.0%) than among women (3.6%). There was a correlation of ET prevalence with age, sex, and habitation area, but not with alcohol, tea drinking, and occupation. Women (25%) with ET were more likely to have head tremor than men (16.9%).

Conclusions

The ET prevalence in the elderly of Beijing was 3.29% which is higher in the urban area and in men.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    H. Sun & Piu Chan

  2. Department of Neurobiology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    H. Sun & Piu Chan

  3. Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    H. Sun, X.-Q. Zhang & Piu Chan

  4. Geriatrics, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    H. Sun & Piu Chan

  5. Beijing Geriatric Healthcare Center, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    F. Sun

  6. Department of Evidence Based Medicine, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    X.-H. Fang

  7. Parkinson Disease Center of Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders and Beijing Key Laboratory on Parkinson’s disease, Beijing, China

    Piu Chan

Authors
  1. H. Sun
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  2. F. Sun
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  3. X.-Q. Zhang
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  4. X.-H. Fang
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  5. Piu Chan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Piu Chan.

Ethics declarations

All participants were asked to sign an informed consent form and the project was approved by ethic committees of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University. Written informed consents were obtained for every subject.

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Sun, H., Sun, F., Zhang, XQ. et al. The Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Essential Tremor in Elderly Chineses: A Population-Based Study. J Nutr Health Aging 24, 1061–1065 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-020-1472-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-020-1472-7

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