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).

Conclusion: Alzheimer patients show peculiar somatometric characteristics. The somatotype technique could represent a suitable tool for the study and monitoring of physical variations.