BMI's Association With Mortality in Patients With Parkinson Disease

In patients with Parkinson disease (PD), especially women, researchers discovered an inverse dose-response association between body mass index (BMI) at diagnosis and mortality.

To investigate the association between BMI and change in BMI at diagnosis in patients with PD and all-cause mortality, study authors selected patients with new-onset PD from the International Classification of Diseases 10^th edition code (G20).

To be included in the study, eligible patients were diagnosed with PD more than 3 times and prescribed anti-parkinsonian medication for 30 days or more. Patients with a combined diagnosis of atypical parkinsonism and secondary parkinsonism were excluded.

BMI was calculated using health screening data and the Cox proportional hazards model was utilized to examine mortality risk caused by BMI.

During the 11-year follow-up period, 492 (18.20%) of the 2703 patients died.

“There was a significant inverse dose-response relationship between baseline BMI and mortality [<18.5 kg/m²: hazard ratio (HR), 1.872, 95% CI, 1.338-2.494; 23-25 kg/m²: HR, 0.695, 95% CI, 0.546-0.886; 25-30 kg/m²: HR, 0.644, 95% CI, 0.476-0.869; ≥30 kg/m²: HR, 0.396, 95% CI, 0.165-0.950],” wrote researchers.

A significant correlation with mortality was determined in change in BMI of 10%. A substantial inverse dose-response relationship between all-cause mortality only in women and BMI was observed in the subgroup analyses by sex.

“Early detection of PD before weight loss progression and proper management might improve mortality,” concluded researchers. “The small number of obese PD participants in our study should be considered when interpreting and generalizing results.”

Reference:
Yoon SY, Heo S-J, Lee HJ, et al. Initial BMI and weight loss over time predict mortality in Parkinson disease. J Am Med Dir Assoc. Published online August 22, 2022. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2022.07.015