The Relationship Between the Dietary Inflammatory Index and Incident Frailty: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.
Nitin Shivappa, Brendon Stubbs, James R Hébert and 5 others
PMID 28943182WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults with the most pro-inflammatory diets had a higher risk of becoming frail over eight years.
This link was strong in men, where the highest diet score group had four times the risk, but no association was found in women.
Key findings
01Participants with the highest dietary inflammatory index scores had a significantly higher probability of incident frailty compared to those with the lowest scores.
02The association between diet inflammation and frailty was significant in men but not in women.
03Each increase in one standard deviation of the dietary inflammatory index score increased the risk of frailty in men, but not in women.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The definition of frailty changed between baseline and follow-up because weight loss criteria differed, which could introduce bias. Comorbidities were self-reported, raising the possibility of recall bias. The study population was restricted to individuals with or at high risk for knee osteoarthritis, limiting generalizability to the broader older adult population. Only 24 of the 45 DII food parameters were available, potentially underestimating the full dietary inflammatory load. The association was not significant across the entire cohort's trend, driven primarily by the male subgroup.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) of the NIH.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that an anti-inflammatory diet prevents frailty in all older adults. The association was null in women and the overall trend across quartiles was not significant, suggesting the effect may be specific to men or subject to chance findings in subgroups.