For researchers

Consumption of fruit and vegetables and risk of frailty: a dose-response analysis of 3 prospective cohorts of community-dwelling older adults

E. García-Esquinas, B. Rahi, K. Peres et al.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 May 18. pii: ajcn125781. [Epub ahead of print]

We sought to examine the dose-response association between fruit and vegetables consumption and the risk of frailty in older adults.

Among community-dwelling older adults, fruit and vegetables consumption was associated with a lower short-term risk of frailty in a dose-response manner, and the strongest association was obtained with 3 portions of fruit/d and 2 portions of vegetables/d

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Phenotype of sarcopenic obesity in older individuals with a history of falling.

Y.R. Huo, P. Suriyaarachchi, F. Gomez et al.

Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2016;65:255-9

The goal of this study was to obtain a comprehensive phenotype of sarcopenic obesity in this high-risk population.
Authors have found that sarcopenic obese subjects were older (81.1±7.3), mostly female and more likely to have lower bone mineral density, lower grip strength, slower gait velocity, and poor balance. Sarcopenic obese individuals also showed significantly higher parathyroid hormone and lower vitamin D.

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Prevention of frailty through narrative intervention.

S. Freitag and S. Schmidt

Soc Sci Med. 2016 May 14;160:120-127. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.05.023. [Epub ahead of print]

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of a biographical disclosure intervention on psychological frailty and health in older adults.
The results of the intervention indicate a short-term positive effect on frailty and mental health in elderly people, who benefitted from the disclosure intervention in terms of improved mental health and lower frailty levels.

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Physical Frailty Assessment in Older Women: Can Simplification Be Achieved Without Loss of Syndrome Measurement Validity?

Q.L. Xue , J. Tian , L.P. Fried et al.

Am J Epidemiol. 2016 May 5. pii: kwv272. [Epub ahead of print]

Different phenotypes have increasingly been used as tools for clinical characterization of frailty among older adults. Although there have been studies about the comparability and effectiveness of various simplifications and approximations of existing frailty phenotypes for risk prediction, there have been no studies in which investigators evaluated the stability of the clinical characterization achieved.
Findings obtained shown that it was no merely the number of criteria used to characterize the PFPs but rather the specific criteria combinations that predicted the risk of adverse outcomes. There are clinically important contexts in which simplified PFPs cannot be used interchangeably.

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A Multicomponent Exercise Intervention that Reverses Frailty and Improves Cognition, Emotion, and Social Networking in the Community-Dwelling Frail Elderly: A Randomized Clinical Trial

F.J. Tarazona-Santabalbina, M.C. Gómez-Cabrera, P. Pérez-Ros et al.

J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2016 May 1;17(5):426-33

The aim of this study is to ascertain if a supervised-facility multicomponent exercise program (MEP) when performed by frail older persons can reverse frailty and improve functionality; cognitive, emotional, and social networking; as well as biological biomarkers of frailty, when compared with a controlled population that received no training.
Authors reported that in3 1.4% (95% CI 20.3-45.0) of the intervention group, frailty was reversed after the exercise training program, whereas no one in the control group reversed frailty after the 6-month period.

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Motor Performance and Physical Activity as Predictors of Prospective Falls in Community-Dwelling Older Adults by Frailty Level: Application of Wearable Technology

M.J. Mohler, C.S. Wendel , R.E. Taylor-Piliae et al.

Gerontology. 2016 Apr 30. [Epub ahead of print]

This study aimed to evaluate wearable sensor-based measures of gait, balance, and physical activity that are predictive of future falls in community-dwelling older adults.
Results obtained suggests that independent predictors of falls are dependent on frailty status. Among sensor-derived parameters, balance deficit, longer typical walking episodes, and shorter typical standing episodes were the most sensitive predictors of prospective falls in the combined pre-frail and frail sample. Gait deficit was not a sensitive fall predictor in the context of frailty status.

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