Abstract
(1) Background: Several factors have been suggested to be associated with the physiopathology of frailty in older adults, and nutrition (especially protein intake) has been attributed fundamental importance in this context. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between protein intake and frailty status in older adults. (2) Methods: A search of scientific studies was conducted in the main databases (Medline, Scopus, Cochrane library), and in the reference lists of selected articles. The search terms included synonyms and Medical Subject Headings and involved the use of Boolean operators which allowed the combination of words and search terms. Observational studies—cross-sectional and longitudinal—that met the eligibility criteria were included in the review. Article selection and data extraction were performed by two independent reviewers. Meta-analyses with random effects were performed. Publication bias was measured using the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology instrument. (3) Results: In the final sample, 10 articles, seven cross-sectional and three longitudinal, were included in the present study. Overall, studies investigated a total of 50,284 older adults from three different continents between 2006 and 2018. Four cross-sectional studies were included in the meta-analyses. The results demonstrated that a high protein intake was negatively associated with frailty status in older adults (odds ratio: 0.67, confidence interval = 0.56 to 0.82, p = 0.0001). (4) Conclusions: Our findings suggest that a high consumption of dietary protein is inversely associated with frailty in older adults.
Highlights
The aging process is a continuous phenomenon characterized by alterations in major physiological systems, accompanied by the development of chronic diseases and geriatric syndromes, such as frailty.Frailty may be conceptualized as a multidimensional geriatric clinical state that involves multiple signs and symptoms leading to extreme vulnerability to stressors and resulting in increased risk of negative health-related outcomes [1,2].Nutrition is acknowledged as a major factor in the context of frailty
Of the 2555 registers recovered from electronic databases and hand search, 2523 records were excluded based on duplicate data, title or abstract
Frailty is a multifactorial condition associated with poor prognosis
Summary
The aging process is a continuous phenomenon characterized by alterations in major physiological systems, accompanied by the development of chronic diseases and geriatric syndromes, such as frailty. Nutrition is acknowledged as a major factor in the context of frailty. Malnutrition is considered one of the pillars for the development of this condition [3], since it can influence all diagnostic criteria for frailty (i.e., unintentional weight loss, low muscle strength, exhaustion, reduced physical activity levels, and slow walking speed) [4]. Authors observed that several factors might be responsible for this close relationship between frail and nutrition, including oral health, nutritional status, dietary patterns, diet quality, the antioxidant capacity of the diet, micronutrients and macronutrients intake [3,5]. Protein intake might be the main factor behind this relationship, through its actions on muscle mass and strength
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