title: Somatotype in Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The clinical picture of Alzheimer's disease includes anthropometric and body composition variations. Somatotyping is a practical non-invasive method to assess body type.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to describe the somatotype of a sample of Alzheimer's patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample consisted of 55 Alzheimer disease individuals in the mild-moderate stage (17 men, mean age = 76.9 +/- 7.2 years; 38 women, mean age = 79.6 +/- 6.4 years). The pathological subjects were compared with a control group consisting of 280 healthy individuals (134 men, mean age = 74.2 +/- 7.3 years; 146 women, mean age = 74.9 +/- 7.4 years). The Heath-Carter somatotype was applied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Alzheimer patients (mean somatotype: 6.1-5.5-0.8 in men, 7.0-5.3-0.7 in women) are less mesomorphic and more ectomorphic than the controls (mean somatotype: 6.1-6.3-0.6 in men, 7.7-6.3-0.4 in women), the differences being significant in women (mesomorphy, p = 0.000; ectomorphy, p = 0.012).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Alzheimer patients show peculiar somatometric characteristics. The somatotype technique could represent a suitable tool for the study and monitoring of physical variations.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia sperimentale, Sezione di Scienze antropologiche, Università di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Buffa
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lodde
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Floris
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zaru
authors.forename: Paolo F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Putzu
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marini
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001823:Body Composition; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013008:Somatotypes; D015431:Weight Loss