Study on the role of inflammation in healthy aging and nutritional status in older persons

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the levels of inflammatory cytokines such as highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and interleukin (IL)-6 in healthy older persons compared to healthy younger persons. To determine the association between the nutritional status and levels of inflammatory markers in older persons. Methods: This is a single center, cross-sectional, analytical study, conducted in the Geriatric Unit of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Madras Medical College, Chennai, India, during the period, February 2013–November 2013. Ninety healthy older persons aged 60 years and above and 90 healthy young adults aged 40 years and below were randomly selected to participate in this study. Blood samples were collected from the participants to analyze the hsCRP and IL-6 levels. Mini nutritional assessment was done in older participants to find out the nutritional status. Results: The older participants' mean age was 66.83 ± 6.1, and the mean age of the younger participants was 29.31 ± 7.4. The mean ± standard deviation of hsCRP level in healthy younger participants was 5.69 ± 3.21 and in healthy older participants was 6.05 ± 3.49. There was no significant difference in the level of inflammatory marker hsCRP between healthy younger and older participants (P = 0.476). The mean rank value of IL-6 in healthy younger participants was 84.45 and in healthy older participants was 96.55. There was no statistically significant difference in the levels of inflammatory marker IL-6 between healthy younger and older participants (P = 0.092). In this study, there was no statistically significant association between nutritional status and hsCRP (P = 0.156) and IL-6 (P = 0.286) levels in older people. Conclusion: The hsCRP and IL-6 levels were not significantly elevated in healthy older people than healthy younger adults in this study. There was no significant association between nutritional status and hsCRP and IL-6 levels in the older people in this study.