Mediterranean Diet and Ultra-Processed Food Intake in Older Australian Adults—Associations with Frailty and Cardiometabolic Conditions
Dietary patterns contribute to overall health and diseases of ageing but are understudied in older adults. As such, we first aimed to develop dietary indices to quantify Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) utilisation and Ultra-processed Food (UPF) intake in a well-characterised cohort of relatively healthy community-dwelling older Australian adults. Second, we aimed to understand the relationship between these scores and the association of these scores with prevalent cardiometabolic disease and frailty. Our major findings are that in this population of older adults, (a) pre-frailty and frailty are associated with reduced MDS and increased UPF intake; (b) adherence to MDS eating patterns does not preclude relatively high intake of UPF (and vice versa); and (c) high utilisation of an MDS eating pattern does not prevent an increased risk of frailty with higher UPF intakes. As such, the Mediterranean Diet pattern should be encouraged in older adults to potentially reduce the risk of frailty, while the impact of UPF intake should be further explored given the convenience these foods provide to a population whose access to unprocessed food may be limited due to socioeconomic, health, and lifestyle factors.
Authors
- Stuart Keith Roberts (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9015-7997)
- Magdalena Sevilla-González (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6135-9998)
- Alice Owen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4807-6069)
- Daniel Clayton‐Chubb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7479-9669)
- Lawrence J. Beilin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4853-7360)
- William Kemp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0787-7273)
- Elena S. George (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1385-2371)
- Jessica A. Fitzpatrick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7811-8135)
- Ammar Majeed (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7024-8787)
- Robyn L. Woods (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1249-6149)
- John J. McNeil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1049-5129)
- Cammie Tran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3997-6118)
- Aung Zaw Zaw Phyo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8834-4072)
- Joanne Ryan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7039-6325)
- Dong D. Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0897-3048)
- Yiqing Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1984-1777)
- Andrew T. Chan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7284-6767)
- Nicole V. Vaughan
Institutions
- Broad Institute (US)
- Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Deakin University (AU)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Royal Perth Hospital (AU)
- St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne (AU)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- Eastern Health (AU)
- Alfred Health (AU)
- Monash University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nutrients
- Published
- 2024-09-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16172978
- Citations
- 11
- Primary Topic
- Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.97
Funders
- National Institute on Aging