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. 2021 Mar 30;13(4):1129.
doi: 10.3390/nu13041129.

Association of Adherence to the Mediterranean-Style Diet with Lower Frailty Index in Older Adults

Toshiko Tanaka  1 , Sameera A Talegawkar  2 , Yichen Jin  2 , Stephania Bandinelli  3 , Luigi Ferrucci  1
Affiliations

Association of Adherence to the Mediterranean-Style Diet with Lower Frailty Index in Older Adults

Toshiko Tanaka et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Identifying modifying protective factors to promote healthy aging is of utmost public health importance. The frailty index (FI) reflects the accumulation of health deficits and is one widely used method to assess health trajectories in aging. Adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet (MTD) has been associated with favorable health trajectories. Therefore, this study explored whether adherence to a MTD is negatively associated with FI in the InCHIANTI study. Participants (n = 485) included individuals over 65 years of age at baseline with complete data over a follow-up period of 10 years. MTD was computed on a scale of 0-9 and categorized based on these scores into three groups of low (≤3), medium (4-5), and high (≥6) adherence. Being in a high or medium adherence group was associated with 0.03 and 0.013 unit lower FI scores over the follow-up period, compared to the low adherence group. In participants with a low FI at baseline, being in a high or medium MTD-adherence group had 0.004 and 0.005 unit/year slower progression of FI compared to the low adherence group. These study results support adherence to a MTD as a protective strategy to maintain a lower FI.

Keywords: Mediterranean diet; frailty index; trajectory.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Association of adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet (MTD) at baseline. The boxplot displays the mean value of frailty index (FI) for subjects with low (MTD ≤ 3), medium (MTD 4–5), and high (MTD ≥ 6) adherence to a MTD. Significant differences were observed between low and high adherence group (p = 0.0322).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Association of MTD with trajectories of the Mediterranean-type diet (MTD). The associations of the MTD and the trajectory of frailty index (FI) were tested using a linear mixed model in all participants (A), participants with baseline FI below (B) or above (C) the median value of 0.103. The trajectories are stratified by low (solid line), medium (dashed line), or high (dotted line) adherence to a MTD. The trajectory of FI differed by MTD in subjects with low FI at baseline where the low adherence group had a faster progression of FI over time compared with the medium and high adherence groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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