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. 2024 Mar 16;36(1):73.
doi: 10.1007/s40520-024-02712-y.

Association of Mediterranean diet adherence with disease progression, quality of life and physical activity, sociodemographic and anthropometric parameters, and serum biomarkers in community-dwelling older adults with multiple sclerosis: a cross-sectional study

Christina Tryfonos  1 , Maria Chrysafi  1 , Sousana K Papadopoulou  2 , Konstantinos Vadikolias  3 , Maria Spanoudaki  2   4 , Maria Mentzelou  1 , Dimitrios Fotiou  5 , Eleni Pavlidou  1 , Georgios Gkouvas  4 , Theofanis Vorvolakos  6 , Apostolos Michailidis  7 , Alexia Bisbinas  8 , Olga Alexatou  1 , Constantinos Giaginis  9
Affiliations

Association of Mediterranean diet adherence with disease progression, quality of life and physical activity, sociodemographic and anthropometric parameters, and serum biomarkers in community-dwelling older adults with multiple sclerosis: a cross-sectional study

Christina Tryfonos et al. Aging Clin Exp Res. .

Abstract

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) constitutes a chronic inflammatory and degenerative demyelinating disease, which can progressively lead to a broad range of sensorimotor, cognitive, visual, and autonomic function symptoms, independently of patient' age. However, the clinical studies that examine the role of dietary patterns against disease progression and symptomatology remain extremely scarce, especially concerning Mediterranean diet (MD) in the subgroup age of older adults with MS.

Aims: The present study aimed to investigate the potential impact of MD compliance in disease progression and symptoms severity as well as quality of life and physical activity of community-dwelling older adults with MS.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional conducted on 227 older adults with no history of other severe disease. Relevant questionnaires were applied to collect sociodemographic and anthropometric factors by face-to face interviews between patients and qualified personnel. Serum biomarkers were retrieved by patients' medical records.

Results: Higher MD compliance was independently associated with younger patients' age, lower risk of overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity, decreased disease progression and higher muscle mass, as well as greater physical activity, better quality of life, and adequate serum ferritin and albumin levels CONCLUSIONS: MD may exert beneficial effects in older adults with MS. Future strategies and policies are highly recommended to inform both the general population and the older patients with MS for the beneficial effects of MD in preventing MS and in improving or even slowing down the disease progression and symptoms severity of MS.

Keywords: Disease progression; Mediterranean diet; Multiple sclerosis; Older adults; Quality of life; Symptoms.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart diagram of study enrollment
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    Godos J, Guglielmetti M, Ferraris C, Frias-Toral E, Domínguez Azpíroz I, Lipari V, Di Mauro A, Furnari F, Castellano S, Galvano F, Iacoviello L, Bonaccio M, Grosso G. Godos J, et al. Nutrients. 2025 Feb 5;17(3):577. doi: 10.3390/nu17030577. Nutrients. 2025. PMID: 39940436 Free PMC article.

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