Prevalence of essential tremor in a multiethnic, community-based study in northern Manhattan, New York, N.Y
Open accessAbstract
Background: Our aims were to: (1) estimate the prevalence of essential tremor (ET) in a community-based study in northern Manhattan, New York, N.Y., USA; (2) compare prevalence across ethnic groups, and (3) provide prevalence estimates for the oldest old. Methods: This study did not rely on a screening questionnaire. Rather, as part of an in-person neurological evaluation, each participant produced several handwriting samples, from which ET diagnoses were assigned. Results: There were 1,965 participants (76.7 ± 6.9 years, range = 66–102 years); 108 had ET [5.5%, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 4.5–6.5%]. Odds of ET were robustly associated with Hispanic ethnicity versus white ethnicity [odds ratio (OR) = 2.19, 95% CI = 1.03–4.64, p = 0.04] and age (OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.03–1.26, p = 0.01), i.e. with every 1 year advance in age, the odds of ET increased by 14%. Prevalence reached 21.7% among the oldest old (age ≥95 years). Conclusions: This study reports a significant ethnic difference in the prevalence of ET. The prevalence of ET was high overall (5.5%) and rose markedly with age so that in the oldest old, more than 1 in 5 individuals had this disease.
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Diagnosis of ET was not validated by an expert.
“as well as the lack of expert validation of diagnosis 1, 8 .”
From Relations between psychological avoidance, symptom severity and embarrassment in essential tremor (2015) · cites this paper as [8]
The Methods (ET Diagnosis; page not provided) say a senior neurologist reviewed and re-rated the preliminary cases and assigned final ET diagnoses after confirming the tremor criteria. The same section reports that diagnoses were confirmed in all nine randomly selected cases given a complete videotaped examination. This contradicts the attributed lack of expert validation. (LLM, conf=0.90)
Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe prevalence of ET is markedly higher than that of Parkinson's disease and many common neurological diseases such as epilepsy, stroke, and multiple sclerosis.
“Its prevalence is markedly higher than that of Parkinson’s disease (PD) (33–35) and many “common” neurological diseases such as epilepsy, stroke, and multiple sclerosis (36).”
From Could Wearable and Mobile Technology Improve the Management of Essential Tremor? (2018) · cites this paper as [35]
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- Authors
- Louis, E. D., Thawani, S. P., & Andrews, H. F.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University (US)
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
- Venue
- Neuroepidemiology
- Publisher
- S. Karger AG
- Published
- 2009
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 208-214
- ISSN
- 0251-5350 (ISSN-L)
- 1423-0208
- PMC
- PMC2744469
- OpenAlex
- W1983504027
- Cited by
- 105
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 8.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Neuroepidemiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Columbia Academic Commons (Columbia University)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (AG07232)
- National Institute on Aging (P01AG007232)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS039422)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Neurological disorders and treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Neurological and metabolic disorders
- Keywords
- essential tremor, prevalence, ethnic differences, Hispanic origin, oldest old, aging, handwriting analysis, Northern Manhattan
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Ethnicity, Female, Handwriting, Humans, Male, New York City, Prospective Studies, Residence Characteristics, Urban Health, Cohort Studies, Prevalence, Essential Tremor
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