Abstract
ObjectivesParkinson’s disease (PD) patients are more likely to develop impaired nutritional status because of the symptoms, medications and complications of the disease. However, little is known about the determinants and consequences of malnutrition in PD. This study aimed to investigate the association of motor, psychiatric and fatigue features with nutritional status as well as the effects of malnutrition on different aspects of quality of life (QoL) in PD patients.MethodsOne hundred and fifty patients with idiopathic PD (IPD) were recruited in this study. A demographic checklist, the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) were completed through face-to-face interviews and clinical examinations. The health-related QoL (HRQoL) was also evaluated by means of the Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). For evaluation of nutritional status, the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) questionnaire was applied together with anthropometric measurements.ResultsThirty seven (25.3%) patients were at risk of malnutrition and another 3 (2.1%) were malnourished. The total score of the UPDRS scale (r = −0.613, P<0.001) and PD duration (r = −0.284, P = 0.002) had a significant inverse correlation with the total MNA score. The median score of the Hoehn and Yahr stage was significantly higher in PD patients with abnormal nutritional status [2.5 vs. 2.0; P<0.001]. More severe anxiety [8.8 vs. 5.9; P = 0.002], depression [9.0 vs. 3.6; P<0.001] and fatigue [5.4 vs. 4.2; P<0.001] were observed in PD patients with abnormal nutritional status. Except for stigma, all other domains of the PDQ-39 were significantly correlated with the total score of the MNA.ConclusionOur study demonstrates that disease duration, severity of motor and psychiatric symptoms (depression, anxiety) and fatigue are associated with nutritional status in PD. Different aspects of the HRQoL were affected by patients’ nutritional status especially the emotional well-being and mobility domains.
Highlights
Nutritional status is an important contributor to quality of life (QoL) and general condition of daily living in the elderly [1,2]
Baseline and Anthropometric Characteristics In total, 150 Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients were recruited into this study consisting of 103 (68.7%) males and 47 (31.3%) females with a mean age of 60.8 (SD = 10.8) yrs, ranging between 32 and 84 years, and a mean disease duration of 6.8 (SD = 5.3) yrs
The highest scores of PDQ-39 were observed in emotional well-being [27.7 (SD = 22.7)] and mobility [26.8 (SD = 25.1)] domains
Summary
Nutritional status is an important contributor to quality of life (QoL) and general condition of daily living in the elderly [1,2]. Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients are susceptible to impaired nutritional status because of different motor and nonmotor symptoms, including psychiatric features and fatigue [3]. Pharmacological treatment administered in PD can influence nutritional status through the drugs themselves and their side effects such as nausea, vomiting and weight loss [4]. Malnutrition can influence immune system, functional status [5,6], some complications of the disease such as constipation [7] and potentially increases the likelihood of falling [8]. Nutritional status does not receive the necessary attention in the management of PD and most of the time it is ignored
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