An observational, analytical, and cross-sectional study in patients with PD attending the Movement Disorder Clinic in Mexico City. To dysphagia detection, we used the Swallowing Disturbance Questionnaire (SDQ cutoff: ≥11) and Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10 cutoff: ≥3). Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF cutoff: 0-7 for malnutrition, 8-11 for risk of malnutrition, and 12-14 for normal nutritional state) was used to detect malnutrition.

A total of 70 (52.85% men) subjects were evaluated, 14 (20%) were positive for dysphagia with the SDQ scale, and 34 (48.57%) with the EAT-10 scale. Regarding the nutritional state, 17 (24.3%) subjects had malnutrition, 27 (38.6%) had a high risk of malnutrition, and 26 (37.1%) had a normal nutrition state. With the SDQ scale, dysphagia was more prevalent in the malnutrition group (50%). However, with the EAT-10 scale, we found a higher prevalence of dysphagia being in the high-risk group (55.9%).

We found a prevalence of dysphagia of 20% to 48%, depending on the scale used. Subjects with malnutrition and at high risk for malnutrition had a higher prevalence of dysphagia in comparison to normal nutrition subjects. However, analysis with a greater sample and with the gold standard to confirm the deglutition disorder is needed to assess the sensibility and specificity of these two scales for the screening of dysphagia in subjects with PD and malnutrition.