Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Aug 12;10(8):e0133666.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133666. eCollection 2015.

Relationship between eating disturbance and dementia severity in patients with Alzheimer's disease

Kyoko Kai  1 , Mamoru Hashimoto  2 , Koichiro Amano  3 , Hibiki Tanaka  4 , Ryuji Fukuhara  2 , Manabu Ikeda  2
Affiliations

Relationship between eating disturbance and dementia severity in patients with Alzheimer's disease

Kyoko Kai et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Eating is one of the most important daily activities in managing patients with dementia. Although various eating disturbance occur as dementia progresses, to our knowledge, most of the studies focused on a part of eating disturbance such as swallowing and appetite. There have been few comprehensive studies including eating habits and food preference in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aims of this study were to investigate almost all eating disturbance and to examine the relationship of eating disturbance to dementia stage in AD.

Methods: A total of 220 patients with AD and 30 normal elderly (NE) subjects were recruited. Eating disturbance was assessed by a comprehensive questionnaire that had been previously validated. Potential relationships between the characteristics of eating disturbance and dementia stage as classified by the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) were assessed.

Results: Overall, 81.4% of patients with AD showed some eating and swallowing disturbance, whereas only 26.7% of the NE subjects had such a disturbance. Even in an early stage, patients with AD had many types of eating disturbance; "Appetite change" was shown in nearly half of the mild AD patients (49.5%). In the moderate stage, the scores of "change of eating habits and food preference" were highest, and in the severe stage "swallowing disturbance" became critical.

Conclusion: In AD, the relationship of dementia stage to eating disturbance differs according to the type of eating disturbance. The relationships between various eating disturbance and the severity of dementia should be considered.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Rates of eating and swallowing disturbance in each stage of dementia and NE subjects.
NE: normal elderly; *: An asterisk shows p < 0.05 with Bonfferoni correction.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Frissoni GB, Franzoni S, Bellelli G, Morris J, Warden V. Overcoming eating difficulties in the severely demented In: Volicer L, Hurley A, editors. Hospice Care for Patients with Advanced Progressive Dementia. New York: Springer Publishing Company; 1998. pp. 48–67.
    1. Holm B, Söderhamn O. Factors associated with nutritional status in a group of people in an early stage of dementia. Clin Nutr. 2003;22(4): 385–9. - PubMed
    1. Ikeda M, Brown J, Holland AJ, Fukuhara R, Hodges JR. Changes in appetite, food preference, and eating habits in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2002;73(4): 371–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shinagawa S, Ikeda M, Nestor PJ, Shigenobu K, Fukuhara R, Nomura M, et al. Characteristics of abnormal eating behaviours in frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a cross-cultural survey. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2009;80(12): 1413–4. 10.1136/jnnp.2008.165332 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shinagawa S, Ikeda M, Nestor PJ, Shigenobu K, Fukuhara R, Nomura M, et al. Characteristics of abnormal eating behaviours in frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a cross-cultural survey. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2009;80: 1413–4. 10.1136/jnnp.2008.165332 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types