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. 2018 Jan;19(1):77-82.
doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2017.08.006. Epub 2017 Sep 21.

The Relationship Between the Dietary Inflammatory Index and Incident Frailty: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Nitin Shivappa  1 , Brendon Stubbs  2 , James R Hébert  1 , Matteo Cesari  3 , Patricia Schofield  4 , Pinar Soysal  5 , Stefania Maggi  6 , Nicola Veronese  7
Affiliations

The Relationship Between the Dietary Inflammatory Index and Incident Frailty: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Nitin Shivappa et al. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: Inflammation is key risk factor for several conditions in the elderly. However, the relationship between inflammation and frailty is still unclear. We investigated whether higher dietary inflammatory index (DII) scores were associated with higher incidence of frailty in a cohort of North Americans.

Design: Longitudinal, with a follow-up of 8 years.

Setting: Osteoarthritis Initiative.

Participants: A total of 4421 participants with, or at high risk of, knee osteoarthritis.

Measurements: DII scores were calculated using the validated Block Brief 2000 Food-Frequency Questionnaire and categorized into sex-specific quartiles. Frailty was defined as 2 out of 3 of the criteria of the Study of Osteoporotic Fracture study (ie, weight loss, inability to rise from a chair 5 times, and poor energy). The strength of the association between baseline DII score and incident frailty was assessed through a Cox's regression analysis, adjusted for potential baseline confounders, and reported as hazard ratios.

Results: A total of 4421 community-dwelling participants (2564 female participants; mean age: 61.3 years) without frailty at baseline were identified from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. During 8 years of follow-up, 356 individuals developed frailty (8.2%). Using Cox's regression analysis, adjusting for 11 potential confounders, participants with the highest DII score (quartile 4) had a significantly higher risk of experiencing frailty (hazard ratio 1.37; 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.89; P = .04) compared with participants with the lowest DII score (quartile 1). The association between DII score and frailty was significant only in men.

Conclusions: Higher DII scores, indicating a more proinflammatory diet, are associated with higher incidence of frailty, particularly in men.

Keywords: Aged; dietary inflammatory index; frailty; inflammation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: Dr. JRH owns controlling interest in Connecting Health Innovations LLC (CHI), a company planning to license the right to his invention of the dietary inflammatory index (DII) from the University of South Carolina to develop computer and smart phone applications for patient counseling and dietary intervention in clinical settings. Dr. NS is an employee of CHI.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Association between dietary inflammatory index and incident frailty in men. blue line indicates the first quartile (i.e., participants with lower DII); yellow line those in the second, green those in the third and violet line participants with the highest DII values.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

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