Results: Twenty-three studies were included in the final review. Thirty potentially modifiable determinants across seven domains (oral, psychosocial, medication and care, health, physical function, lifestyle, eating) were included. The majority of studies had a high risk of bias and were of a low quality. There is moderate evidence that hospitalisation, eating dependency, poor self-perceived health, poor physical function and poor appetite are determinants of malnutrition. Moderate evidence suggests that chewing difficulties, mouth pain, gum issues co-morbidity, visual and hearing impairments, smoking status, alcohol consumption and physical activity levels, complaints about taste of food and specific nutrient intake are not determinants of malnutrition. There is low evidence that loss of interest in life, access to meals and wheels, and modified texture diets are determinants of malnutrition. Furthermore, there is low evidence that psychological distress, anxiety, loneliness, access to transport and wellbeing, hunger and thirst are not determinants of malnutrition. There appears to be conflicting evidence that dental status, swallowing, cognitive function, depression, residential status, medication intake and/or polypharmacy, constipation, periodontal disease are determinants of malnutrition. Conclusion: There are multiple potentially modifiable determinants of malnutrition however strong robust evidence is lacking for the majority of determinants. Better prospective cohort studies are required. With an increasingly ageing population, targeting modifiable factors will be crucial to the effective treatment and prevention of malnutrition.

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BackgroundFunctional decline and frailty are common in community dwelling older adults, increasing the risk of adverse outcomes. Given this, we investigated the prevalence of frailty-associated risk factors and their distribution according to the severity of perceived risk in a cohort of community dwelling older adults, using the Risk Instrument for Screening in the Community (RISC).MethodsA cohort of 803 community dwelling older adults were scored for frailty by their public health nurse (PHN) using the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and for risk of three adverse outcomes: i) institutionalisation, ii) hospitalisation and iii) death, within the next year, from one (lowest) to five (highest) using the RISC. Prior to scoring, PHNs stated whether they regarded patients as frail.ResultsThe median age of patients was 80 years (interquartile range 10), of whom 64% were female and 47.4% were living alone. The median Abbreviated Mental Test Score (AMTS) was 10 (0) and Barthel Index was 18/20 (6). PHNs regarded 42% of patients as frail, while the CFS categorized 54% (scoring ≥5) as frail. Dividing patients into low-risk (score one or two), medium-risk (score three) and high-risk (score four or five) using the RISC showed that 4.3% were considered high risk of institutionalization, 14.5% for hospitalization, and 2.7% for death, within one year of the assessment. There were significant differences in median CFS (4/9 versus 6/9 versus 6/9, p < 0.001), Barthel Index (18/20 versus 11/20 versus 14/20, p < 0.001) and mean AMTS scores (9.51 versus 7.57 versus 7.00, p < 0.001) between those considered low, medium and high risk of institutionalisation respectively. Differences were also statistically significant for hospitalisation and death. Age, gender and living alone were inconsistently associated with perceived risk. Frailty most closely correlated with functional impairment, r = −0.80, p < 0.001.ConclusionThe majority of patients in this community sample were perceived to be low risk for adverse outcomes. Frailty, cognitive impairment and functional status were markers of perceived risk. Age, gender and social isolation were not and may not be useful indicators when triaging community dwellers. The RISC now requires validation against adverse outcomes.

BackgroundPredicting risk of adverse healthcare outcomes, among community dwelling older adults, is difficult. The Risk Instrument for Screening in the Community (RISC) is a short (2–5 min), global subjective assessment of risk created to identify patients’ 1-year risk of three outcomes:institutionalisation, hospitalisation and death.MethodsWe compared the accuracy and predictive ability of the RISC, scored by Public Health Nurses (PHN), to the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) in a prospective cohort study of community dwelling older adults (n = 803), in two Irish PHN sectors. The area under the curve (AUC), from receiver operating characteristic curves and binary logistic regression models, with odds ratios (OR), compared the discriminatory characteristics of the RISC and CFS.ResultsFollow-up data were available for 801 patients. The 1-year incidence of institutionalisation, hospitalisation and death were 10.2, 17.7 and 15.6 % respectively. Patients scored maximum-risk (RISC score 3,4 or 5/5) at baseline had a significantly greater rate of institutionalisation (31.3 and 7.1 %, p < 0.001), hospitalisation (25.4 and 13.2 %, p < 0.001) and death (33.5 and 10.8 %, p < 0.001), than those scored minimum-risk (score 1 or 2/5). The RISC had comparable accuracy for 1-year risk of institutionalisation (AUC of 0.70 versus 0.63), hospitalisation (AUC 0.61 versus 0.55), and death (AUC 0.70 versus 0.67), to the CFS. The RISC significantly added to the predictive accuracy of the regression model for institutionalisation (OR 1.43, p = 0.01), hospitalisation (OR 1.28, p = 0.01), and death (OR 1.58, p = 0.001).ConclusionFollow-up outcomes matched well with baseline risk. The RISC, a short global subjective assessment, demonstrated satisfactory validity compared with the CFS.

BackgroundThere are complex interactions between aging, frailty, diet, and the gut microbiota; modulation of the gut microbiota by diet could lead to healthier aging. The purpose of this study was to test the effect of diets differing in sugar, fat, and fiber content upon the gut microbiota of mice humanized with microbiota from healthy or frail older people. We also performed a 6-month dietary fiber supplementation in three human cohorts representing three distinct life-stages.MethodsMice were colonized with human microbiota and then underwent an 8-week dietary intervention with either a high-fiber/low-fat diet typical of elderly community dwellers or a low-fiber/high-fat diet typical of long-stay residential care subjects. A cross-over design was used where the diets were switched after 4 weeks to the other diet type to identify responsive taxa and innate immunity changes. In the human intervention, the subjects supplemented their normal diet with a mix of five prebiotics (wheat dextrin, resistant starch, polydextrose, soluble corn fiber, and galactooligo-saccharide) at 10 g/day combined total, for healthy subjects and 20 g/day for frail subjects, or placebo (10 g/day maltodextrin) for 26 weeks. The gut microbiota was profiled and immune responses were assayed by T cell markers in mice, and serum cytokines in humans.ResultsHumanized mice maintained gut microbiota types reflecting the respective healthy or frail human donor. Changes in abundance of specific taxa occurred with the diet switch. In mice with the community type microbiota, the observed differences reflected compositions previously associated with higher frailty. The dominance of Prevotella present initially in community inoculated mice was replaced by Bacteroides, Alistipes, and Oscillibacter. Frail type microbiota showed a differential effect on innate immune markers in both conventional and germ-free mice, but a moderate number of taxonomic changes occurring upon diet switch with an increase in abundance of Parabacteroides, Blautia, Clostridium cluster IV, and Phascolarctobacterium. In the human intervention, prebiotic supplementation did not drive any global changes in alpha- or beta-diversity, but the abundance of certain bacterial taxa, particularly Ruminococcaceae (Clostridium cluster IV), Parabacteroides, Phascolarctobacterium, increased, and levels of the chemokine CXCL11 were significantly lower in the frail elderly group, but increased during the wash-out period.ConclusionsSwitching to a nutritionally poorer diet has a profound effect on the microbiota in mouse models, with changes in the gut microbiota from healthy donors reflecting previously observed differences between elderly frail and non-frail individuals. However, the frailty-associated gut microbiota did not reciprocally switch to a younger healthy-subject like state, and supplementation with prebiotics was associated with fewer detected effects in humans than diet adjustment in animal models.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40168-019-06...

Background & Aims: Malnutrition is widespread among older people and related to poor outcome. Reported prevalences vary widely, also because of different diagnostic criteria used. This study aimed to describe prevalences in several populations of older persons in different settings using harmonized definitions. Methods: Available studies within the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Knowledge Hub 'Malnutrition in the Elderly' (MaNuEL) were used to calculate and compare prevalences of malnutrition indicators: low BMI (<20 kg/m 2 ; age-specific BMI <20 if age 65-<70 and <22 kg/m 2 if age ≥70 years), previous weight loss (WL), moderate and severe decrease in food intake, and of combined BMI <20 kg/m 2 and/or WL in participants aged ≥65 years. Results: Fifteen samples with in total 5,956 participants (59.3% women) were included: 7 consisting of community-dwelling persons, 2 studies in geriatric day hospitals, 3 studies in hospitalized patients and 3 in nursing homes. Mean age of participants ranged between 67 and 87 years. Up to 4.2% of community-dwelling persons had a BMI <20 kg/m 2 , 1.6 and 9% of geriatric day hospital patients, 4.5-9.4% of hospital patients and 3.8-18.2% of nursing home residents. Using age-specific cutoffs doubled these prevalences. WL was reported in 2.3-10.5% of community-dwelling persons, 6% and 12.6% of geriatric day hospital patients, 5-14% of hospitalized patients and 4.5-7.7% of nursing home residents. Severe decrease in food intake was recorded in up to 9.6% of community-dwelling persons, 1.5% and 12% of geriatric day hospital patients, 3.4-34.2% of hospitalized patients and 1.5-8.2% of nursing home residents. The criteria age-specific BMI and WL showed opposing prevalences across all settings. Compared to women, low BMI and moderate decrease in food intake showed low prevalences in men but similar prevalences were observed for weight loss and severe decrease in food intake. In half of the study samples, participants in a younger age group had a higher prevalence of WL compared to those of an older age group. Prevalence of BMI <20 kg/m 2 and WL at the same time did not exceed 2.6% in all samples. The highest prevalences were observed based on combined definitions when only one of the three criteria had to be present. Conclusions: Prevalences for different criteria vary between and within the settings which might be explained by varying functional status. The criteria used strongly affect prevalence and it may be preferable to look at each criterion separately as each may indicate a nutritional problem.

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Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), the most common gastrointestinal disorder, is diagnosed solely on symptoms. Potentially diagnostic alterations in the bacterial component of the gut microbiome (the bacteriome) are associated with IBS, but despite the known role of the virome (particularly bacteriophages), in shaping the gut bacteriome, few studies have investigated the virome in IBS. We performed metagenomic sequencing of fecal Virus-Like Particles (VLPs) from 55 patients with IBS and 51 control individuals. We detected significantly lower alpha diversity of viral clusters comprising both known and novel viruses (viral ‘dark matter’) in IBS and a significant difference in beta diversity compared to controls, but not between IBS symptom subtypes. The three most abundant bacteriophage clusters belonged to the Siphoviridae, Myoviridae , and Podoviridae families (Order Caudovirales ). A core virome (defined as a cluster present in at least 50% of samples) of 5 and 12 viral clusters was identified in IBS and control subjects, respectively. We also identified a subset of viral clusters that showed differential abundance between IBS and controls. The virome did not co-vary significantly with the bacteriome, with IBS clinical subtype, or with Bile Acid Malabsorption status. However, differences in the virome could be related back to the bacteriome as analysis of CRISPR spacers indicated that the virome alterations were at least partially related to the alterations in the bacteriome. We found no evidence for a shift from lytic to lysogenic replication of core viral clusters, a phenomenon reported for the gut virome of patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Collectively, our data show alterations in the virome of patients with IBS, regardless of clinical subtype, which may facilitate development of new microbiome-based therapeutics.