Association between malnutrition, clinical parameters and health-related quality of life in elderly hospitalized patients with Parkinson’s disease: A cross-sectional study

Objective This study aimed to explore the association between malnutrition, clinical parameters, and health-related quality of life in elderly hospitalized patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods Cross-sectional study of 92 hospitalized elderly patients with PD (mean age 73.6 ± 6.7 years) without dementia. The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) was used to evaluate nutritional status. Motor impairment and non-motor symptoms burden (Movement Disorder Society-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale [MDS-UPDRS], Non-Motor Symptoms Questionnaire, and Hoehn & Yahr staging), depression (Becks Depression Inventory-II), and health-related quality of life (PD quality of life Questionnaire-39) were assessed. Results Every second patient was malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. In the multivariable analysis, male gender, longer disease duration, higher Hoehn & Yahr and depression were associated with total MNA score. Besides non-motor symptoms and motor impairment, malnutrition was an independent predictor of poor health-related quality of life. In the multivariate analysis, malnutrition had a statistically significant effect on emotional well-being, mobility, social support, stigmatization, and cognition. The strongest association was found between malnutrition and emotional well-being. Conclusion Elderly male persons with longer PD duration and higher disease stages are more likely to be malnourished or at risk for malnutrition. Malnutrition was mainly associated with poor emotional well-being, suggesting that treatment of depression and anxiety beside diet and physical activity can help improving nutrition status in these subjects. The MNA should not be used independent of other measures of cognition and depression in people with advanced PD.