Healthy Eating Enhances Intrinsic Capacity, Thus Promoting Functional Ability of Retirement Home Residents in Northern Taiwan

• Published in: Nutrients 2022-05, Vol.14 (11), p.2225
• Main Authors: Lim, Kian-Yuan, Lo, Hui-Chen, Cheong, In-Fai, Wang, Yi-Yen, Jian, Zi-Rong, Chen, I-Chen, Chan, Yun-Chun, Lee, Shyh-Dye, Chou, Chi-Chun, Yang, Feili Lo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living; Adults; Aged; Aging; Cognition & reasoning; Collaboration; Diet; Diet, Healthy; Dietary intake; Disease; Dysphagia; Eating; Exercise; Fatigue tests; Food products; Fruits; Gait; Humans; Life expectancy; Locomotion; Malnutrition; Mortality; Muscle strength; Nutrition research; Nutritional status; Older people; Physical fitness; Population; Prospective Studies; Retirement; Retirement homes; Taiwan; Vegetables; Vitamins
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu14112225

Healthy aging is defined as the process of developing and maintaining functional ability in older age with intrinsic capacity, the composite of all the physical and mental capacities of an individual, being the core. This study was conducted to explore the intervention effects of improved dietary quality on intrinsic capacity. A prospective single-group interventional quasi-experimental study with 59 functional independent older adults from retirement homes were recruited. Texture-modified plant-based dietary supplements were provided. In addition, dietary intake, functional ability, and intrinsic capacity in vitality, locomotion, cognition, and psychological capacity were assessed. Vitality was captured by nutritional status, muscle strength, and cardiorespiratory endurance. Locomotor capacity was assessed based on the performance of physical fitness in backscratch test, chair-sit-and-reach test, chair-stand test, one-foot-standing test, and gaits peed. Psychomotor capacity and cognition were measured by using 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), respectively. In a 4-month of intervention, after controlling for baseline values and covariates, participants with higher dietary intervention adherence showed a significant improvement over time in vitality captured by cardiorespiratory endurance (Pinteraction = 0.009) and significant improvement in locomotion captured by gait speed (Pclusters = 0.034). A significant decrease in the chair-stand test (Ptime =