The nutritional status of Dutch elderly patients with Parkinson's disease

To assess the prevalence of (risk of) undernutrition in Dutch elder Parkinson's disease patients as well as it's risk factors.

Observational cross-sectional study.

An outpatient clinic at the department Neurology of Medical Centre Leeuwarden, a large teaching hospital.

102 outpatients with Parkinson's disease aged 65 years and older were recruited.

Data regarding various aspects of undernutrition including socio-demographic aspect, disease characterisitics, nutritional status, appetite and overall-physical and psychological functioning were collected.

Undernutrition was diagnosed in 2.0% and 20.5% of the patients were categorized as being at risk of undernutrition. Care dependency and appetite were the two risk factors with the highest predictive value for an unfavorable nutritional status.

Of Dutch elderly patients with Parkinson's Disease 22.5% had an unfavourable nutritional status. Dependency and appetite were the two risk factors with the highest predictive value fort his outcome. Because undernutrition can be regarded as a geriatric syndrome a comprehensive nutritional assessment should be done followed by nutritional interventions next to interventions focused on the risk factors. Further studies are needed to evaluate these interventions.