Hsiao HT, et al. – Given the recent evidence supporting the effects of obesity, diabetes and hypertension in the development of Alzheimer’s, researchers investigated if and how involuntary body weight changes in patients with different stages of dementia are related to clinical factors of the patient per se or support from their caregivers. They intended to gain an understanding of the interactions among factors in order to establish a monitoring paradigm to guide treatment strategies. From a multi-disciplinary dementia clinic, 345 individuals with very mild- and mild-stage dementia were recruited. The researchers recorded clinical data (comorbidities, Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] scores, neuropsychiatric inventory [NPI] scores, eating behavior questionnaire), nutritional state (Mini-Nutritional Assessment [MNA] or MNA short-form [MNA-SF]), and body mass index (BMI). Nutritional state and BMI were the two major outcome measures. The only independent factor related to both the MNA-SF and MNA was the NPI. Findings showed that a higher BMI indicated adequate nutritional status and higher MMSE scores, but also higher rates of comorbidities, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension in patients with early-stage dementia.