Abstract
Nutritional factors contributing to disability and mortality are modifiable in later life. Indices would add utility. We developed a gender-specific Healthy Ageing Nutrition Index (HANI) for all-cause mortality in free-living elderly. We stratified 1898 participants aged ≥65 y from the 1999–2000 Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan by region and randomly allocated them into development and validation sets. Linkage to the National Death Registry database until December 31, 2008 enabled mortality prediction using Cox proportional-hazards models. Four factors (appetite, eating with others, dietary diversity score, and BMI) with best total of 25 HANI points for men; and 3 factors (cooking frequency, dietary diversity score, and BMI) with best total of 27 HANI points for women, were developed. In the validation set, the highest HANI group exhibited a greater intake of plant-derived food and associated nutrients, a favourable quality of life, and more muscle mass, compared with the lowest group. The highest HANI group predicts mortality risk lower by 44 percent in men and 61 percent in women. Adjusted mortality HRs were comparable between sets. HANI is a simple, non-invasive, inexpensive, and potentially modifiable tool for nutrition monitoring and survival prediction for older adults, superior to its individual components.
Highlights
Diet-related factors are a leading cause of death globally[12,13,14]
Men more commonly reported good appetite, greater shopping frequency, greater physical activity, unsatisfactory chewing ability, and less cooking frequency compared to women (P < 0.05)
Each score for selected factors to Healthy Ageing Nutrition Index (HANI) were appetite [9], eating with others [2], Dietary diversity score (DDS) [7], and body mass index (BMI) [7], and for women, they were frequency of cooking [11], DDS [7], and BMI [9]
Summary
Diet-related factors are a leading cause of death globally[12,13,14]. Ageing is affected by demographic, epidemiologic, and nutritional transitions[15] with nutrition-related factors the most modifiable. There are age-related nutritional conditions such as the anorexia of ageing[20,21], chewing disability[22], cognitive impairment[23] and problems with food and eating[24]. Vegetables in older people is affected by different social support forms between genders[29]. Few tools screen for nutritional risk factors according to gender. We identify modifiable nutritional- or diet-related risk factors for mortality in the older Taiwanese population as well as develop and validate a composite non-invasive gender-specific Healthy Ageing Nutrition Index (HANI) for survival prediction
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
