Validity of the Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form in Detecting Malnutrition in Parkinson's Disease: A Clinical...

Malnutrition is a common and clinically significant problem among individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), adversely affecting overall health and quality of life. The Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) is widely used for malnutrition screening in diverse clinical populations; however, its diagnostic utility in PD has not been fully established. This study aimed to evaluate the validity of the MNA-SF in detecting malnutrition among patients with PD.

This prospective cross-sectional study included 42 patients with PD. Demographic characteristics, disease-related variables, and nutritional parameters were recorded. Malnutrition was diagnosed using clinical criteria based on ESPEN guidelines. All participants underwent the MNA-SF, and score distributions were compared with clinical malnutrition status. Diagnostic accuracy was assessed using ROC curve analysis.

Of the 42 participants, 22 (52.4%) were women, with a mean age of 59.33 ± 10.19 years. Clinically, 23.8% were diagnosed with malnutrition. According to the MNA-SF classification, 21.4% were malnourished, 38.1% were at risk, and 40.5% had a normal nutritional status. Malnourished patients had significantly lower MNA-SF scores than those without malnutrition (p = 0.004). The MNA-SF demonstrated good diagnostic performance, with an AUC of 0.80 (95% CI: 62.1-97.9; p = 0.005). Using a cut-off score of < 8.5, the sensitivity was 70.0%, and the specificity was 87.5%.

The MNA-SF may be a useful screening tool for identifying malnutrition in patients with PD. However, the proposed < 8.5 cut-off should be considered exploratory and requires external validation in larger and more diverse PD populations before broader clinical application.