Periodic Reporting for period 1 - InDEPENDEnt (Impact of Dietary Protein on Disability in ageing Europeans)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2019-07-15 al 2021-07-14
Protein malnutrition is a cause for concern in older adults in Europe since protein intake is lower in European older men (87 g/d) and women (69 g/d) than in their younger counterparts (97 g/d and 73 g/d respectively) due to multimorbidity, changes in oral health, changes in taste perception and loss of independence. Another compounding issue is that the current protein recommended dietary allowance is based largely on short-term nitrogen balance studies conducted in mainly healthy young adults, thereby failing to take into account functional outcomes, such as disability, or the higher prevalence of multimorbidity in older adults both of which can offset protein requirements due to disease-related tissue catabolism and inflammation. The InDEPENDEnt project addressed these issues by providing a robust estimate of the association between protein intake and physical function in older European and North-American adults, as well as investigating the synergistic effect of physical activity. InDEPENDEnt also reproduced these analyses on Portuguese young-old adults as well as providing up-to-date estimates on the prevalence of mobility limitations in Portugal.
The main results of project were that a) higher daily protein intake may reduce physical function decline in community-dwelling older adults not only in those with a protein intake <0.8 g/kg bodyweight/d but also in those with protein intake that is already considered sufficient, in a dose-dependent manner; b) we also found that in our sample there was no association between protein intake and physical activity in relation to physical function; c) in addition there was no association between animal foods and mobility limitations in a Portuguese sample of young-old adults.
InDEPENDEnt directly resulted in 3 published or submitted scientific publications and indirectly to others:
• Salvador C … Mendonça N. (2021) Animal foods and mobility limitations in community-dwelling young-old adults: longitudinal analysis of the EpiDoC cohort (submitted).
• Mendonça et al. (2021) Protein intake, physical activity and grip strength in European and North American community-dwelling older adults: a pooled analysis of individual participant data from four longitudinal ageing cohorts. (submitted).
• Mendonça N et al. (2021) Low protein intake, physical activity and physical function in European and North American community-dwelling older adults: a pooled analysis of four longitudinal aging cohorts. Am J Clin Nutr. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqab051.
I have delivered several oral presentations at international and national conferences, as well as created a project’s website, shared lay summaries of the published articles on Twitter, LinkedIn, the project’s website as well as another H2020 project’s website (PROMISS) (www.promiss-vu.eu).