Effects of food–drug interaction-oriented nutritional education on quality of life in Parkinson's disease: A pilot quasi-experimental study

Background: This pilot study aimed to evaluate the effect of nutritional counseling/education interventions focusing on levodopa food–drug interactions on the physical and mental quality of life of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods: A quasi-experimental pre–post design was used. Thirty participants with PD for at least 1 year were selected from pharmacies in Konya, Türkiye. Participants completed an ad hoc, unvalidated questionnaire that included the Short Form-12 (SF-12) quality-of-life evaluation as well as other questions regarding socio-demographic data, general eating habits, and 3-day food consumption records prior to nutritional counseling/education intervention. After baseline data collection, each participant received one-on-one nutritional counseling/education. Four weeks post-intervention, participants were surveyed for 3-day dietary records and repeated the SF-12 evaluation. The dietary data were processed using the Nutrition Information System Software (BEBiS 8.1). A registered dietitian performed all nutritional analyses. Results: The mean age of participants was 66.8 ± 7.2 years, and the mean body mass index was 27.5 ± 3.3 kg/m2. The intervention resulted in statistically significant enhancements in physical and mental SF-12 scores (P < 0.05). Participants showed decreased protein intake (from 0.87 ± 0.4 to 0.78 ± 0.3 g/kg), lower consumption of large neutral amino acids (phenylalanine, tryptophan, and tyrosine), and decreased total daily energy intake. Conclusion: Short-term nutritional counseling/education targeting food–drug interactions can improve quality of life and dietary habits in people with PD. To further validate and expand upon these promising findings, the long-term efficacy of such targeted nutritional interventions should be demonstrated in future large-scale, randomized controlled trials.