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. 2022 Dec 9:13:1062134.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.1062134. eCollection 2022.

Relationship between motor dysfunction and chewing movement in patients with Parkinson's disease: A transversal study

Taisei Sano  1   2 , George Umemoto  1   3 , Shinsuke Fujioka  4 , Yuki Iwashita  1 , Yuriko Dotsu  1 , Naohisa Wada  2 , Yoshio Tsuboi  4
Affiliations

Relationship between motor dysfunction and chewing movement in patients with Parkinson's disease: A transversal study

Taisei Sano et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Objective: To assess the impact of chewing movement in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), we examined the relation between chewing movement and motor dysfunction in association with PD progression.

Methods: Thirty patients with PD (mean age, 68.9 ± 9.0 years; mean Hoehn and Yahr stage, 3.0 ± 0.7) were recruited. The PD condition was assessed in each patient by using the score of Movement Disorder Society Unified PD Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part III score, body mass index (BMI), serum albumin (Alb), and tongue pressure, number of chews, mealtime, and chewing speed were collected. The patients were divided into two groups (mild and moderate PD groups) based on an MDS-UPDRS part III cut-off value of 32.

Results: The chewing speed positively correlated with tongue pressure (rho = 0.69, p < 0.01) in the mild group, and with BMI (rho = 0.54, p = 0.03), serum Alb (rho = 0.63, p = 0.02), and number of chews (rho = 0.69, p < 0.01) in the moderate group. The MDS-UPDRS part III scores for all participants correlated negatively with chewing speed (rho = -0.48, p < 0.01), serum Alb (rho = -0.49, p < 0.01), and positively with mealtime (rho = 0.43, p = 0.01). Tongue pressure and serum Alb were identified to be as factors affecting the chewing speed (β= 0.560, p < 0.01; β= 0.457, p < 0.01, respectively).

Conclusions: These results indicated that the progression of motor dysfunction in patients with PD is likely to affect chewing speed and the nutritional status decline may be linked to the impairment of chewing movement in these patients.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease; chewing movement; motor dysfunction; nutritional status; tongue pressure.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Japanese set meals. (A) Normal rice set meal. (B) Soft rice set meal. (C) Rice gruel set meal.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Bite scan® to measure the number of chews, mealtime, and chewing speed.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlations between chewing speed and tongue pressure in the mild group of Parkinson's disease.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Correlations between chewing speed and serum albumin in the moderate group of Parkinson's disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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