• Michela Barichella, Albert Akpalu, Momodou Cham, Giulia Privitera, Erica Cassani, Emanuele Cereda, Laura Iorio, Roberto Cilia, Alba Bonetti, and Gianni Pezzoli.
• Parkinson Institute, Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento, Milan, Italy.
• Nutrition. 2013 Feb 1;29(2):470-3.

ObjectiveDietary treatment is important for the management of Parkinson's disease (PD). Our objective was to describe the dietary habits and assess the nutritional status of Ghanaian patients with PD. This study is part of a larger project, for which Ghana has been selected as a pilot country.MethodsFifty-five Ghanaian patients with PD and 12 healthy Ghanaian controls were recruited. We assessed nutritional status, investigated dietary habits, and assessed the prevalence of the nutritional complications of PD (e.g., constipation and dysphagia).ResultsThe mean daily caloric intake was about 1200 kcal/d in patients with PD and in controls. The typical diet was based on semisolid foods, usually vegetable soups accompanied by cereal flour or root starch or sometimes chicken or fish. The intake of milk and its derivatives was low. The prevalences of constipation and dysphagia in patients with PD were 49% and 21%, respectively.ConclusionThis study has yielded information that could be useful for the study of the management of PD and for the assessment of response to therapy.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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