Ultra-processed food consumption and nutritional frailty in older age

Frailty is a multidisciplinary public health issue and nutrition is key concern. Given the scientific consistency about inflammation as shared pathway to poor nutrition and frailty, food processing seems a suitable target to gain evidence in frailty prevention nutrition settings. This study aimed to assess diet in relation to nutritional frailty using the NOVA classification. Browsing the dataset of the Salus in Apulia, 2185 older adults were found to have completed the nutritional assessment, providing eligible data for this study goal. A validated construct, based on the co-presence of physical frailty by CHS criteria plus nutritional imbalance, was applied to characterize nutritional frailty phenotypes. Using the NOVA classification, daily food and beverage intakes from an 85-item self-administered FFQ were assigned to three categories, and effect sizes were tested among groups according to nutritional frailty status (presence/absence). Raw and adjusted logistic regression models were run to assess associations between NOVA food categories by quintiles of daily exposure (very-low, low, mild, moderate, high) and nutritional frailty. Nutritional frailty prevalence was 27%, being more frequent in males. Eating more unprocessed or minimally processed foods was inversely related to nutritional frailty, even after adjustment (OR: 0.10, 95%CI 0.07–0.16), showing a downward ORs behavior toward lower consumption quintiles. Listing in the quintile of moderate consumption of processed foods meant a nearly 50% increase in nutritional frailty probability (OR: 1.46, 95%CI 1.03–2.06), while the probability was double for the highest quintile against the lowest (OR: 3.22, 95%CI 2.27–4.58). A growing probability of nutritional frailty was found for increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods, but significance was lacking. The contribution of food processing to poor nutrition needs to be considered when promoting a better understanding of effective nutritional screening in aging. Therefore, food processing should be accounted for when composing diet guidelines for the older population within the framework of multidisciplinary efforts to ease the frailty healthcare burden. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11357-023-00753-1.