Adherence to Mediterranean Diet and Frailty

Area of Science:

• Gerontology and Nutritional Epidemiology
• Public Health and Preventive Medicine

Background:

• Frailty is a significant concern in aging populations, increasing vulnerability to adverse health outcomes.
• The Mediterranean diet is recognized for its health benefits, but its specific association with frailty requires further investigation in diverse populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and frailty among older adults in Greece.
• To determine if a higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet correlates with lower odds of frailty.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study utilizing data from the Hellenic Longitudinal Investigation of Aging and Diet (HELIAD) cohort.
• Inclusion of 1740 participants aged 65 years and older, randomly sampled from two Greek municipalities.
• Assessment of Mediterranean diet adherence using the MedDietScore and frailty using three established definitions (Fried phenotype, Frailty Index, Tilburg Frailty Indicator).

Main Results:

• Prevalence of frailty varied across definitions: 4% (Fried), 18.7% (Frailty Index), and 25.4% (Tilburg Frailty Indicator).
• Increased adherence to the Mediterranean diet, indicated by a higher MedDietScore, was significantly associated with decreased odds of frailty across all three definitions.
• Specifically, each unit increase in MedDietScore correlated with a 4-7% reduction in the odds of frailty (P < .005).

Conclusions:

• Higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with lower odds of frailty in older Greek adults, regardless of the frailty assessment method used.
• These findings support the potential role of the Mediterranean diet in population-based frailty prevention strategies and clinical practice.