X-Message-Number: 12341 Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1999 07:58:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug Skrecky <> Subject: food and the elderly Citations: 1-2 <1> Authors Frisoni GB. Franzoni S. Rozzini R. Ferrucci L. Boffelli S. Trabucchi M. Institution Alzheimer's Disease Unit, Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Brescia, Italy. Title Food intake and mortality in the frail elderly. Source Journals of Gerontology. Series A, Biological Sciences & Medical Sciences. 50(4):M203-10, 1995 Jul. Abstract BACKGROUND. Adequate qualitative and quantitative food intake is a major determinant of health. However, nutritional requirements in the elderly are unknown, and even more so in the frail elderly. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of energy and macro-nutrients on health in the frail nursing home elderly. METHODS. Food intake of 72 not severely diseased elderly patients was assessed with direct weighing method. Outcome measure was survival over 28-month follow-up period. Confounders of the association of food intake with survival were: age, gender, body-mass index, daily function, somatic health, anergy, and nutritional status. Crude association of food intake with survival was assessed with Kaplan-Meyer method, and adjusted association with multiple Cox regression models. RESULTS. Patients of the study had good average food intake. Mortality rate was relatively low (.20 per year). Low levels of energy, protein, lipid, and carbohydrate intake were negatively associated with survival even after adjustment for confounders. When compared to high intake, adjusted relative risks for mortality of low intake were 4.74, 3.75, 4.71, and 2.04, respectively. Medium levels of energy, protein, and lipid, but not carbohydrate, intake yielded intermediate mortality risk. CONCLUSIONS. Food intake is a strong predictor of survival even in moderately diseased elderly patients, suggesting possible low-cost interventions. <2> Authors Wagstaff DJ. Graves CG. Ruddell JH. Title Food intake and mortality in the United States. Source Regulatory Toxicology & Pharmacology. 7(2):149-59, 1987 Jun. Abstract Patterns of food intake and cause-specific death rates were compared for population groups of the United States for 1965, the first year for which national files are available. Aging was a much more important determinant of death rates than type of food eaten. There were no strong patterns of rank correlations of food intake and cause of death, but there was a preponderance of positive rank correlations for alcohol. This, together with similarities of age distributions of alcohol intake and death rates for causes related to alcohol, suggested the hypothesis that alcohol was associated with increased mortality. Other than this, because of the limited power of the exploratory statistical procedures applied, the hypothesis that there were health differences in people eating different foods could be neither accepted nor rejected. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12341