Sex-related differences in the association between frailty and dietary consumption in Japanese older people: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Female sex is an important factor predisposing individuals to frailty. Appropriate nutrition is one of the most effective ways to prevent older adults from developing frailty; Sex-related differences have also been detected in the association between nutritional intervention and health-related outcomes. However, few studies have discussed these sex-related differences. The aim of the present study was to investigate the sex-related differences in the association between frailty and dietary consumption. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study which investigated community-dwelling older adults aged ≥65 years. We surveyed age, sex, body mass index, family arrangement (living alone, living with a partner or living with parent(s) and/or child (ren)), dietary consumption and frailty status. Dietary consumption was surveyed using a food frequency questionnaire that included 13 major food categories (fish, meat, eggs, dairy products, soybean products, vegetables, seaweeds, potatoes, fruits, fats or oils, snacks, salty foods and alcohol). Frailty was defined by the Kihon Checklist score. The Kihon Checklist is composed of 25 simple yes/no questions, and it has been validated as a metric for frailty. A higher score indicates a greater degree of frailty. Multinomial regression analysis was performed to clarify the association between frailty and dietary consumption for each sex. Results We analyzed 905 older adults (420 (46.4%) were male). After adjusting for cofounders, a low frequency of meat consumption (less than twice/week) was associated with a high prevalence of frailty in men (odds ratio: 2.76 (95%CI: 1.12–6.77), p = 0.027). In contrast, in women, low frequencies of consumption of fish, meat, vegetables, potatoes and snacks were associated with a higher prevalence of frailty compared with those who consumed foods from those categories daily (odds ratios: fish 2.45 (1.02–5.89), p = 0.045; meat 4.05 (1.67–9.86), p = 0.002; vegetables 5.03 (2.13–11.92), p < 0.001; potatoes 3.84 (1.63–9.05), p = 0.002; snacks 2.16 (1.02–4.56), p = 0.043). Conclusions More food categories were associated with frailty in women than in men. Nutritional intervention to prevent frailty is presumably more effective for women than for men. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12877-019-1229-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Physical frailty and its associated factors among elderly nursing home residents in China

“…Our preliminary study underlined the fact that as many as about one-half of the older adults living in nursing homes were frail, and 38.5% were still prefrail; moreover, frailty tended to be more prevalent in women than men. A number of studies [ 27 – 29 ] from different countries (i.e., Japan, Southern Italy) were consistent with our results, which demonstrated that frailty was highly prevalent, and the prevalence of frailty in women was higher than in men. A greater understanding of the reasons and implications of this physical phenotype across sex was required.…”

Physical Frailty and Its Associated Factors Among Elderly Nursing Home Residents in China

“…Our preliminary study underlined the fact that as high as about one-half of the older adults living in nursing homes were frail, and 38.5% were still prefrail; moreover, women were frailer than men. Many studies [24][25][26] from different countries (i.e., Japan, South Italy) are consistent with our results, which demonstrated that frailty was highly prevalent, and the prevalence of frailty in women was higher than in men. A greater understanding of the reasons and implications of this physical phenotype across sex is required.…”

Frailty Indexed Classification of Bangladeshi Older Adults’ Physio-psychosocial Health and Associated Risk Factors - A Cross-sectional Survey Study

“…Gender was identi ed as a risk factor for predicting the older adults' frailty [14,27]. This study's ndings agree on previous studies in reporting that female older adults in low-income countries, South Asia in particular, are generally reluctant about their health complexities and they do not take proper initiatives for health check-ups [27,[54][55][56]. A considerable inconsistency in the research outcomes is that the female older adults who live without a partner are more inclined to medical conditions [57][58][59].…”