The effect of the nutritional status and dietary inflammatory index on frailty and activities of daily living in geriatric outpatients.

Abstract

It has been reported that the inflammatory process plays a role in the pathophysiology of frailty in elderly individuals and that diet is effective in regulating chronic inflammation. This study aims to evaluate the effects of nutritional status and dietary inflammatory index on frailty and activities of daily living in the elderly. A cross-sectional study in a hospital in Turkey has been carried out with 187 over the age of 65 who presented to the geriatric outpatient clinic participants. Anthropometric measurements of the patients were recorded, and the dietary inflammatory index (DII) was calculated using the 24-h dietary recall method. Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) was used to determine the malnutrition risk, the FRAIL scale was used for frailty assessment, and Katz and Lawton & Brody scales were used for daily living activities. The mean age of the elderly is 70.83 ± 4.98 years. The frailty rate was determined to be 28.3%. The DII score was determined as 4.41 ± 5.16 in frail patients and 1.62 ± 4.39 in non-frail patients (p < 0.05). While DII showed a negative correlation with the Lawton & Brody scale score (r = - 0.353), MNA was positively correlated to the Katz score (r = 0.386, p = 0.000) and the Lawton & Brody score (r = 0.475). In addition, one-unit increase in the MNA score was associated with a 29% decrease in the risk of frailty. The dietary inflammatory index was found to be high in frail and malnourished individuals. It was determined that the quality of life of individuals with malnutrition decreased.