title: The nutritional status of Dutch elderly patients with Parkinson's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the prevalence of (risk of) undernutrition in Dutch elder Parkinson's disease patients as well as it's risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  An outpatient clinic at the department Neurology of Medical Centre Leeuwarden, a large teaching hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  102 outpatients with Parkinson's disease aged 65 years and older were recruited.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data regarding various aspects of undernutrition including socio-demographic aspect, disease characterisitics, nutritional status, appetite and overall-physical and psychological functioning were collected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Undernutrition was diagnosed in 2.0% and 20.5% of the patients were categorized as being at risk of undernutrition. Care dependency and appetite were the two risk factors with the highest predictive value for an unfavorable nutritional status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Of Dutch elderly patients with Parkinson's Disease 22.5% had an unfavourable nutritional status. Dependency and appetite were the two risk factors with the highest predictive value fort his outcome. Because undernutrition can be regarded as a geriatric syndrome a comprehensive nutritional assessment should be done followed by nutritional interventions next to interventions focused on the risk factors. Further studies are needed to evaluate these interventions.
authors.affiliation: Jolanda van Steijn, Medical Centre Leeuwarden, Department of Geriatrics, PO Box 888, 8901 BR Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, +31 58 2863067, jolanda.van.steijn@znb.nl.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Steijn
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van Harten
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Flapper
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Droogsma
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Walderveen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blaauw
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van Asselt
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001066:Appetite; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors