Understanding the Global Impact of the Honolulu Asian Aging Study: George W. Ross, MD

WATCH TIME: 11 minutes | Captions are auto-generated and may contain errors.

"By the time somebody is diagnosed with Parkinson disease, they've lost half the neurons in their substantia nigra, and 80% of their dopamine is gone. Identifying symptoms that might allow you to identify a group of people at high risk could allow interventions to slow progression or prevent the motor symptoms from ever appearing."

The Honolulu-Asia Aging Study (HAAS) is a population-based, prospective cohort study that has been investigating risk factors and incidence rates of Parkinson disease (PD) and various forms of dementia since 1991. The study follows approximately 3800 Japanese American men, who were first examined for conditions such as heart disease, degenerative and vascular dementia, and PD when the study began. HAAS is a continuation of the Honolulu Heart Program, an earlier research project designed to investigate risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke.

At the 2025 International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders (MDS) Congress, held October 5 to 9, in Honolulu, Hawaii, G. Webster Ross, MD, an investigator at Kuakini Health Systems, presented data from the study, including the major epidemiologic findings. Ross, one of the study authors for HAAS, spoke with NeurologyLive^® ahead of his presentation on the study, emphasizing the study’s long-term, population-based approach and the value of its extensive clinical and autopsy data.

In this conversation, Ross outlined the history of HAAS and highlighted how this work could potentially impact ongoing research in PD and dementia. He dove into the key findings of the study and explains what factors were linked to increased or decreased risk of developing PD. Furthermore, Ross brought to light the importance of the autopsy data HAAS collected and how it might help earlier diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases in the future.

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