Excerpt
Older people are more prone to undernutrition or malnutrition, as a result of age related physiological changes affecting appetite, food intake and metabolism, chronic diseases and functional impairment, social and psychological factors (
1). The increased prevalence of frailty with ageing is also well known (
2). Weight loss may be considered a hall mark of the frailty syndrome, where low energy and protein intake together with various vitamins contribute to the components of the frailty syndrome such as fatigue, decline in strength and aerobic function, and multi-morbidity (
3). The important contribution of nutrition to frailty is highlighted in a recent article supporting the use of the Mini Nutritional Assessment as a screening tool for the identification of frail older people (
4). The inflammatory process contributes to the underlying pathophysiology of many chronic diseases of ageing, as well as the frailty syndrome, giving rise to the term ‘inflammageing’ (
5-
9). The concept of a diet that counters inflammageing has also been proposed, as an approach to prevention and treatment (
5). This article reviews the current strategies in nutrition research to examine the relationship between nutrition and frailty, existing evidence of studies using frailty as an end point, recommendations in prevention and treatment, and the gaps between research findings and translation into clinical practice and health policies in health promotion and clinical management. …
