Daily Fluid Intake in People With Newly Diagnosed Parkinson's Disease Is Reduced Compared With Controls

Parkinson's disease (PD) is an age-related neurodegenerative condition with a range of motor and nonmotor symptoms. Nonmotor symptoms such as constipation and orthostatic hypotension can occur at any stage, while dysphagia is common in later stages of the disease. Previous work by our group showed that people with PD who lose weight within a year of diagnosis had a poorer prognosis. In this study, we explored whether fluid intake was also reduced in people with newly diagnosed PD.

We invited people with newly diagnosed PD (within 6 months of a diagnosis or longer if not requiring treatment) to join the study. Controls were household members of the participants with PD. Participants all underwent the same assessments, including a 24-h dietary recall, a video-recorded swallowing assessment, and grading of stool sample consistency using the Bristol Stool Chart.

We recruited 30 participants, 19 with PD and 11 household controls. People living with PD reported significantly lower fluid intake from drinks (control median = 1799 mL, PD median = 1124 mL, p=0.005 for difference in medians). People with PD drank fluid slightly slower than the controls, 6.0 mL/second vs 7.5 mL/second, but this did not reach statistical significance. Participants with PD had significantly harder stools than controls, with a mean Bristol Stool Chart number of 3.2 vs 4.6 for controls (p=0.01).

PD is associated with significantly reduced intake of fluids from beverages around the time of diagnosis, which may contribute to constipation and orthostatic hypotension.