Dietary Inflammatory Index and Cross-Sectional Associations with Inflammation, Muscle Mass and Function in Healthy Old Adults

• Published in: The Journal of nutrition, health & aging health & aging, 2022-04, Vol.26 (4), p.346-351
• Main Authors: Haß, U., Herpich, C., Kochlik, B., Weber, D., Grune, T., Norman, Kristina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aging; Body Mass Index; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diet; Gait; Geriatrics/Gerontology; Hand Strength; Humans; Inflammation; Insulin resistance; Interleukin-6; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Muscle strength; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Neurosciences; Nutrition; Older people; Original Research; Oxidative stress; Primary Care Medicine; Quality of Life Research; Regression analysis; Sarcopenia; Sarcopenia - etiology
• ISSN: 1279-7707; 1760-4788
• DOI: 10.1007/s12603-022-1753-4

Importance Inflammaging is considered a driver of age-related loss of muscle mass and function (sarcopenia). As nutrition might play a role in this process, the Dietary Inflammatory Index® (DII) has been developed to quantify the inflammatory potential of an individual diet. Objectives We aimed to examine associations between the DII, inflammation, oxidative stress and sarcopenia-related parameters in healthy old compared to young adults. Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study included data of 79 community-dwelling, healthy old adults (65–85 years) and 59 young adults (18–35 years) who participated in a randomized controlled trial from April to December 2019. Measurements The DII was computed with dietary data collected from 24-h recall interviews. Associations between the DII, inflammatory and oxidative stress markers as well as bioimpedance-derived body composition, handgrip strength and gait speed were determined with multiple linear regression analyses adjusted for age, sex, physical activity and insulin resistance. Results Regression analyses revealed significant relationships between a higher interleukin (IL) 6 and IL-6:IL-10-ratio and higher percentage fat mass (%FM), waist-to-height-ratio (WHtR) as well as lower percentage skeletal muscle mass (%SMM) and gait speed exclusively in old adults. Subsequent analyses showed that IL-6 was associated with a pro-inflammatory diet as indicated by a higher DII, again exclusively in old adults (beta coefficient (β)= 0.027, standard error (SE) 0.013, p=0.037). While the DII was not related with handgrip strength or oxidative stress in neither old nor young adults, linear models confirmed that a higher DII was inversely associated with gait speed in old participants (β= −0.022, SE 0.006, p