Considering Median Dietary Protein Intake Per Kg Body Weight of Representative Non-frail Elderlies in Establishing Protein Recommendation for Community-dwelling Elders? (P01-008-19)

Abstract

Objectives Indicator of Amino Acid Oxidation (IAAO) method is a state-of-art method to determine protein requirement. A recent review summarized the estimated average requirement (EAR) derived from IAAO plus two standard deviations as around 1.15–1.29 g/Kg body weight (BW) for elderlies. However, emerging evidence shows that providing protein beyond nitrogen balance point (as high as 1.5 g/Kg BW) to frail or pre-frail elderlies seems to provide additional benefit on muscle mass and performance, compared to 1.2 g/Kg BW. It is not clear whether community-dwelling elders require higher than 1.2–1.3 g/Kg BW to maintain adequate muscle mass and quality. This study intends to derive dietary protein Adequate Intake (AI) from a group of representative community-dwelling non-frail elderlies in Taiwan. Methods Using the 24-hour recall data of 1430 elderly adults (65y) from the Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan, 2014–2016, protein intake by age groups (65–69; 70–79; 80+) and by frailty levels (robust; pre-frail; frail) in both genders was estimated. Frailty phenotypes were determined using Linda Fried criteria. SUDAAN was used for statistical analysis. Results Mean levels of protein intake were 1.2, 1.4, and 1.3 g per Kg body weight (BW) per day (d) for men aged 65–69, 70–79, and 80+; and 1.2, 1.3, and 0.9 g/Kg BW/d for women at the same age groups. The mean protein intakes were 1.4, 1.3, and 1.2 g/kg BW/d for elderly men at robust, pre-frail, and frail states, respectively; and they were 1.3, 1.2, and 1.0 for women. The median were 1.3, 1.2, and 1.1 for men and 1.3, 1.1, and 1.1 for women. Conclusions Adequate intake of the community-dwelling elderly Taiwanese men and women is estimated around 1.3 g/Kg BW/d, taking into consideration the frailty issue. This information may be considered complementary to IAAO data in establishing protein requirement. Funding Sources Health Promotion Agency; International Life Science Institutes; Academia Sinica.