A. Lana, F. Rodriguez-Artalejo and E. Lopez-Garcia
J Am Geriatr Soc. 2015;63(9):1852-60
There is emerging evidence that links diet to frailty. There is little evidence of the effect of consumption of particular foods or selected nutrients on the risk of frailty.
Dairy products are substantial sources of proteins, vitamins, and minerals, especially for older adults. Thus, dairy products could theoretically reduce the incidence of frailty, but high milk consumption could also have deleterious effects. Some studies have found positive effects of dairy consumption in older people, but the evidence base for this recommendation remains scarce.
This study aimed to examine the association between consumption of dairy products and risk of frailty in community-dwelling older adults.
Data were taken from the older cohort of the Study on Nutrition and Cardiovascular Risk in Spain (Seniors-ENRICA). ENRICA study was a cross-sectional survey conducted from 2008 to 2010 in 12,948 individuals representative of the non-institutionalized adult (aged 60 and older) population of Spain. From 2008 to 2010, food consumption was assessed using a validated diet history. Participants were examined again in 2012 to assess incident frailty, defined as at least three of the five Fried criteria (exhaustion, weakness, low physical activity, slow walking speed, unintentional weight loss).
Participants consuming seven or more servings per week of low-fat milk and yogurt had lower incidence of frailty (OR= 0.52; 95% confidence interval (CI)= 0.29–0.90; P for trend= 0.03) than those consuming less than one serving per week. Specifically, consumers of seven or more servings per week of low-fat milk and yogurt had less risk of slow walking speed (OR= 0.64, 95% CI= 0.44–0.92, P trend= .01) and of weight loss (OR= 0.54, 95% CI= 0.33–0.87, P trend= .02). Consuming seven or more servings per week of whole milk or yogurt (OR= 1.53, 95% CI= 0.90–2.60, P trend=0.10) or of cheese (OR= 0.91, 95% CI= 0.52–1.61; P trend= .61) was not associated with incident frailty.
Comment:: These results suggest that, in individuals with low consumption of low-fat yogurt and milk, an increase in consumption of these products may be a useful and easy-to-implement intervention to prevent frailty by providing these nutrients; nevertheless, the efficacy of this intervention should be assessed in experimental studies.