Mediterranean Diet and Frailty Risk

• Published in: Integrative medicine alert 2018-04, Vol.21 (4)
• Main Author: Feldman, Ellen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Aging; Diet; Food; Frailty; Geriatrics; Meta-analysis; Nutrition research; Older people; Studies; Systematic review
• ISSN: 2325-2812; 2325-2820
• DOI: 10.1111/jgs.15251

[...]evidence is building that the onset of frailty, theoretically defined in 2011 as “a clinically recognizable state of increased vulnerability resulting from aging-associated decline in reserve and function across multiple physiologic systems,” has modifiable risk factors.1 Nutritional status is believed to play an important role in either development or protection from frailty.2 However, it is not known if a specific diet or dietary pattern is key. The second portion of the chart shows incident frailty risk in the reduced pooled group to just the three studies performed in Mediterranean Europe (Chinese study excluded.) All ORs are adjusted for multiple variables or potential confounders, including sex and age of participants, marital status, use of medication, and health habits, such as use of tobacco products and/or alcohol. According to the Fried definition, three out of the five criteria must be present to diagnose and stage frailty. [...]frailty is distinct from comorbidities and disability rather than synonymous with these conditions, as had been postulated up until Fried’s work. [...]we now understand that disability may result from frailty and that comorbidities contribute to this condition.5 A working operational definition allows systematic investigation of frailty risk factors and outcomes.