title: Is underweightness still a major problem in Parkinson's disease patients?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the current rate of underweightness amongst Parkinson's disease (PD) patients at an Italian referral centre.
  
  
  METHODS
  Epidemiological study on consecutive patients presenting for the first time in a 16-month period.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nutritional service of PD referral centre in Milan, Italy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three-hundred and sixty-four PD patients diagnosed according to CAPIT criteria.
  
  
  METHODS
  Anthropometric assessments: BMI and waist-to-hip ratio; evaluation of therapeutic physical activity (h/week).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three-hundred and sixty-four patients were included (180 female, 184 male), mean (s.d.) age 65.9 (8.9) y, mean (s.d.) duration of PD 10.6 (5.3) y; 134 patients (37%) were overweight and 92 (25%) were obese; 11 (3%) were underweight; 127 (35%) had normal BMI. No important differences in BMI according to sex and smoking status were observed. There was highly significant inverse correlation between duration of disease and BMI (P<0.001): mean (s.d.) duration of disease was 9.7 (4.7) y in overweight+obese patients, 11.1 (5.5) y in patients with normal BMI and 14.1 (7.2) y in underweight patients (P=0.0059). The waist-to-hip ratio was a cardiovascular risk factor in 47.7% of men and 73.8% of women. Mean (s.d.) therapeutic physical activity was 1.07 (1.59) h/week in overweight and obese patients vs 1.61 (2.04) h/week in patients with normal BMI (50.5% increase; P=0.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  At present underweightness is uncommon in PD patients in Italy; this may be due to the increase in the prevalence of overweightness in the Italian population and to modern antiparkinsonian therapy.
authors.affiliation: Parkinson Institute, Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barichella
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marczewska
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vairo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Canesi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pezzoli
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001824:Body Constitution; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012907:Smoking; D013851:Thinness / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013997:Time Factors