Prevalence of nutrition disorders and nutrition‐related conditions in older patients with Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundsAlzheimer's disease is frequently encountered with nutrition‐related conditions such as malnutrition, sarcopenia, frailty, overnutrition, and micronutrient abnormalities in older patients. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of nutrition disorders and nutrition‐related conditions in the same patient group.MethodsA total of 253 older patients with Alzheimer's disease underwent comprehensive geriatric assessment, which included nutrition‐related disorders, malnutrition via the Mini Nutritional Assessment‐Short Form (MNA‐SF), frailty via the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), and sarcopenia was diagnosed according to European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People‐2 criteria.ResultsThe patients' mean age was 79.8 ± 6.5 years, and 58.1% were women. In our patients, 64.8% had malnutrition or were at risk of malnutrition; 38.3% had sarcopenia; 19.8% were prefrail; and 80.2% were frail. Malnutrition, frailty, and sarcopenia prevalence increased as the Alzheimer's disease stage progressed. Malnutrition was found to be significantly related with frailty scores via CFS (odds ratio [OR], 1.397; P = 0.0049) and muscle mass via fat‐free mass index (FFMI) (OR, 0.793; P = 0.001). In logistic regression analysis, age, MNA‐SF, and CFS were included in the model to detect the independent correlates of probable and confirmed sarcopenia. CFS was independently associated with probable and confirmed sarcopenia (OR, 1.822; P = 0.013; OR, 2.671; P = 0.001, respectively). Frailty was similarly related with FFMI (OR, 0.836; P = 0.031). Obesity was independently related with FFMI (OR, 0.688; P < 0.001).ConclusionIn conclusion, nutrition disorders and nutrition‐related conditions can present concurrently in patients with all stages of Alzheimer's disease; therefore, these frequent problems should be screened and diagnosed accordingly.