RESEARCH ARTICLE Relationship between Eating Disturbance and Dementia Severity in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

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 vali-dated. Potential relationships between the characteristics of eating disturbance and demen-tia 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, wherea