The Consequences of Lacking Diversity in Parkinson Disease Research

Dr. Makarious introduced our class to the Global Initiative of Parkison’s Genetics: GP2. She stressed the importance of looking globally into Parkinson's genetics and diversifying the network. As well as emphasizing the prevalence of Parkinson Disease (PD) in ongoing clinical trials with lack of representation of underrepresented populations. She thus discusses PD genetics can’t fully obtain a whole picture of the underlying causes, since there may be other genetic factors left unknown. PD is becoming more of a problem every year, as there is a great increase rate mainly across men in low-middle-income countries (Blauwendraat et al.). However, there have been genetic associations tied with PD that have given insight to the loci markers and genetic makeup of PD, that have gone into enabling the global PD genetics research program. 

The Global Initiative of Parkinson’s Genetics goal is to more accurately describe and raise global awareness to PD by analyzing PD genetic data from over 200,000 participants worldwide (Blauwendraat et al.) Therefore, with more genetic data, the initiative would be able to create a spectrum of PD risk from risk and causative variants. GP2 is a global endeavor to accelerate underrepresented groups research of PD on an international scale, by therefore accelerating discovery of PD with more genetic data and transforming underrepresented populations lives by producing transformative discoveries. 

The GP2 program’s initiative to further Parkinson Research is supported by a recent article, Overcoming Barriers to Parkinson Disease Trial Participation: Increasing Diversity and Novel Designs for Recruitment and Retention (Vaswani et al.). In this study, they found that a major setback in uncovering the genetic foundation of PD is poor recruitment. Furthermore, in an informal survey they found that only 10% of the 80% that marked they were willing to complete the trial (Vaswani et al.).  They hypothesized the ongoing barriers of trial participation is due to financial, logistical, geographical, physical, and caretaker factors. A systematic review of clinical trials showed a lack of minority groups with PD and lack of diversity has severe implications. For instance, lack of diversity leads to lack of understanding of PD biology and therapeutics with only a limited set of the population with PD. Secondly, PD is a complex and transformative disease, thus diversity is necessary to provide accurate care and improve overall knowledge of the disease. Furthermore, minorities receive less PD specialized care. Therefore, lack of diversity in PD research also affects those receiving evidently based and specialized care. Some solutions to improve recruitment, is to craft a new study design with final incentives, health information, and technological advances like virtual visits.

Both the GP2’s research and PD study by Vaswani et al. addresses the concerns of lacking diversity in PD research. Vaswani et al. and GP2 agree that diversifying and expanding globally the field of Parkinson genetics can help scientific and social outcomes. Although there are initiatives like GP2 and articles like Increasing Diversity and Novel Designs for Recruitment and Retention (Vaswani et al.), there are implications that arise. For instance, this is a slow process, it's not an overnight thing. The operations to implicate the GP2 program or advances to overcome diversity barriers is built on time, investment, and gaining trust. Finally, both studies should heavily acknowledge with each participant that they are furthering the scientific field of Parkinson’s genetics research and social equity in Parkinson disease research.

 

References

Blauwendraat et al., Tackling a disease on a global scale, the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program, GP2: A new generation of opportunities, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2025), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2025.07.014

Vaswani et al., Overcoming Barriers to Parkinson Disease Trial Participation: Increasing Diversity and Novel Designs for Recruitment and Retention, Neurotherapeutics (2020), https://doi.org/10.1007/s13311020-00960-0