Nutritional status of patients with Alzheimer's disease: a 1-year study

To describe the effects of activity level and energy intake over time on the body weight of patients with Alzheimer's disease compared with cognitively normal subjects.

Repeated measures, case-control design with measurements taken at quarterly intervals for 12 months. Subjects were grouped by gender and activity level (sedentary or active) within cognitive status.

The Alzheimer's disease Special Care Unit, The Clinical Research Center at University of California, San Diego, and the Fred Kasch Exercise Physiology Laboratories at San Diego State University.

Seventeen institutionalized subjects with Alzheimer's disease and 23 community-dwelling control subjects successfully completed the 1-year study.

Before admission to the nursing home, the patients with Alzheimer's disease had a formal assessment for dementia, which showed that they met the criteria of the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association work group for probable or possible Alzheimer's disease. Control subjects were screened using the Information-Memory-Concentration Mental Status Test and were found to have no cognitive disabilities. Baseline and quarterly measurements included height, weight, bioimpedance for body composition, and activity by accelerometer counts. Dietary intake of energy and protein was determined at baseline and at 6 and 12 months.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease had a significantly higher energy intake than patients in the control group. Both women and men with Alzheimer's disease maintained their weight. Women with Alzheimer's disease had higher percentage of fat-free mass than the control group, but there were no differences in body composition between the groups of men.

Subjects with Alzheimer's disease can maintain their weight if they are given a diet with adequate energy (35 kcal/kg of body weight).