Introduzione o prefazione

Chronic diseases are one of the most important health and social problems for Italy and Europe as a whole, mainly because of aging. This paper suggests a reflection on a severe neurodegenerative disease, Parkinson's Disease. In Italy, the Ministry of Health is precisely concerned by its importance because it not only affects an increasing number of people but also because it has very high health care costs. However, in order to be able to intervene properly, it is necessary to know more about the phenomenon, not only strictly medical (neurological) it is also interesting to know the socio-demographic characteristics of its population. In this paper, for the first time, a European database (SHARE) is used, which makes it possible to highlight neglected aspects of this pathology, but above all to hypothesize care paths focused on resources and social relationships of people with a chronic disease.