Lower nutritional status and higher food insufficiency in frail older US adults

• Published in: British journal of nutrition 2013-07, Vol.110 (1), p.172-178
• Main Authors: Smit, Ellen, Winters-Stone, Kerrie M., Loprinzi, Paul D., Tang, Alice M., Crespo, Carlos J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biological and medical sciences; Body Weight; Carotenoids; Carotenoids - blood; Diet; Dietary Surveys and Nutritional Epidemiology; Energy Intake; Epidemiology; Feeding. Feeding behavior; Female; Food; Food Supply; Frail Elderly - statistics & numerical data; Frailty; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Geriatric Assessment; Humans; Male; Malnutrition - epidemiology; Middle Aged; Nutrition; Nutrition Assessment; Nutrition Surveys; Nutritional Status; Obesity - epidemiology; Odds Ratio; Older people; Overweight - epidemiology; Prevalence; Reference Values; Selenium - blood; Self Report; Serum Albumin - metabolism; Thinness - epidemiology; United States - epidemiology; Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems
• ISSN: 0007-1145; 1475-2662
• DOI: 10.1017/S000711451200459X

Frailty is a state of decreased physical functioning and a significant complication of ageing. We examined frailty, energy and macronutrient intake, biomarkers of nutritional status and food insufficiency in US older adult (age ≥ 60 years) participants of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n 4731). Frailty was defined as meeting ≥ 2 and pre-frailty as meeting one of the following four-item criteria: (1) slow walking; (2) muscular weakness; (3) exhaustion and (4) low physical activity. Intake was assessed by 24 h dietary recall. Food insufficiency was self-reported as ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ not having enough food to eat. Analyses were adjusted for sex, race, age, smoking, education, income, BMI, other co-morbid conditions and complex survey design. Prevalence of frailty was highest among people who were obese (20·8 %), followed by overweight (18·4 %), normal weight (16·1 %) and lowest among people who were underweight (13·8 %). Independent of BMI, daily energy intake was lowest in people who were frail, followed by pre-frail and highest in people who were not frail (6648 (se 130), 6966 (se 79) and 7280 (se 84) kJ, respectively, P