Diet Quality May Affect Risk of Frailty in Older Adults

A study of U.S. community-dwelling older adults published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society found poorer diet quality associated with an elevated risk of frailty, reports Medical Xpress . Diet quality seemed to be more critical to reducing this risk than protein intake. Over four years of follow-up, 277 of 2,154 participants — who were 70 to 81 years old and described as "robust" or "pre-frail" at the beginning — developed frailty. Poor- and medium-quality diets were connected to a 92 percent and a 40 percent higher occurrence of frailty in comparison with good-quality diets, respectively. The researchers noted no association for protein consumption. "The role of single nutrients such as protein in the development of frailty is not fully understood and definitely needs further investigation," admitted Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam's Linda Hengeveld. "Nevertheless, this study contributes to the prevailing idea that the overall quality is important anyway."