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. 2020 Aug 23;12(9):2548.
doi: 10.3390/nu12092548.

The Effects of Cow-Milk Protein Supplementation in Elderly Population: Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis

Barbara Zanini  1 , Anna Simonetto  2 , Matilde Zubani  2 , Maurizio Castellano  1 , Gianni Gilioli  2
Affiliations

The Effects of Cow-Milk Protein Supplementation in Elderly Population: Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis

Barbara Zanini et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Background: To review currently available evidence on the effect of cow-milk proteins supplementation (CPS) on health in the elderly.

Methods: Five electronic databases (Pubmed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov) were searched for studies about CPS among older people. All types of publications were included, with the exception of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, opinion letters, editorials, case reports, conference abstracts and comments. An additional search in Google Scholar and a manual review of the reference lists were performed.

Results: Overall, 103 studies were included. Several studies explored the role of CPS in the preservation or improvement of muscle mass among healthy subjects (40 studies) and pre-frail, frail or sarcopenic patients (14), with evidence of beneficial effects. Other studies assessed the effect of CPS on bones (12), cardiovascular disease (8), inflamm-aging (7), chronic pulmonary disease (4), neurocognitive function (4), and vaccines (2), with weak evidence of positive effects. Seven studies in the field of protein metabolism investigated the role of CPS as an important contributor to nutritional needs. Other investigational areas are considered in the last five studies.

Conclusions: The beneficial effects of CPS in achieving aged-related nutritional goals, in preserving muscle mass and in recovering after hospitalization may be particularly relevant in the elderly.

Keywords: casein; muscle mass; nutrition; older people; sarcopenia; whey protein.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram of the literature screening process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The network plot of the 11 intervention arms included in the randomized clinical trials (82 studies). The intervention arms are coded in the plot as nodes: each node size is proportional to the number of direct comparisons involving each intervention. The 20 lines between nodes represent direct comparisons driven by the trials; the line thickness is proportional to the number of studies where the direct comparison was performed. The additional semicircles over five nodes represent comparisons of different dosages within the same intervention (WP: Whey Proteins, EEA: Essential Amino Acids).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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