Exposing telomere length's impact on malnutrition risk among older adults residing in the community: Insights from cross-sectional data analysis

Priscila Rodrigues; Guilherme Furtado; Margarida Martins; Ricardo Vieira; Ariene Orlandi; Sónia Brito-Costa; Ana Moisão; Ligiana Corona; Daniela Lima; Tábatta Brito

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0308612

Exposing telomere length's impact on malnutrition risk among older adults residing in the community: Insights from cross-sectional data analysis

PLoS One. 2024 Nov 5;19(11):e0308612. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0308612. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Priscila Rodrigues¹, Guilherme Furtado^{2

3

4}, Margarida Martins^{1

5

6

7

8

9

10}, Ricardo Vieira¹¹, Ariene Orlandi¹², Sónia Brito-Costa^{2

13}, Ana Moisão^{2

13}, Ligiana Corona¹⁴, Daniela Lima¹, Tábatta Brito¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Nutrition, Federal University of Alfenas, Alfenas, Brazil.
² Polytechnic University of Coimbra, Rua da Misericórdia, Lagar dos Cortiços-S. Martinho do Bispo, Coimbra, Portugal.
³ Research Centre for Natural Resources Environment and Society (CERNAS), Polytechnic University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁴ SPRINT - Sport Physical activity and health Research & INnovation cenTer, Polytechnic University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁵ GreenUPorto - Sustainable Agrifood Production Research Centre, Vairão, Portugal.
⁶ Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences (CITAB), Vila Real, Portugal.
⁷ Polytechnic University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁸ H&TRC - Health & Technology Research Center, Coimbra Health School, Polytechnic University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁹ Sports and Physical Activity Research Center, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
¹⁰ Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
¹¹ Nursing School, Federal University of Alfenas, Alfenas, Brazil.
¹² Nursing Department, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, Brazil.
¹³ InED - Center for Research and Innovation in Education, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
¹⁴ Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil.

Abstract

Background: Successful aging is associated with an increase in life expectancy. For a better understanding of the aging process, recognize the relationship between telomere length and nutritional status is a novel approach in geriatric science. Telomers shortening coincides with a decrease in life expectancy, and an increased risk of malnutrition-related diseases.

Goals: The goal of this study was to investigate whether a shorter telomere length is associated with a greater likelihood of malnutrition in community-dwelling older adults.

Methods: A cross-sectional study with a probabilistic sample of 448 older people aged 60 years old or over, and living in the urban area of an inland Brazilian municipality was conducted. The information was gathered in two stages: a) a personal interview was conducted to obtain sociodemographic, cognitive, and functional autonomy data. The Mini Nutritional Assessment was used to assess the risk of malnutrition. b) a blood sample was taken to proceed with the relative quantitative study of telomere length using real-time qPCR method. The differences between the groups were estimated using Pearson's v2 and Fisher's exact tests. In the data analysis, descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression were applied.

Results: In 34.15% of the total sample, malnutrition was recognized as a risk factor. Older people with the shortest telomere length had more chances of getting malnutrition (OR = 1.63; IC:95% = 1.04-2.55) compared to those with longer telomeres, independent of age groups, family income, multimorbidity, cognitive decline, and depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: The creation of clinical trials and the implementation of therapies to reduce the risk of malnutrition will be aided using the telomere length as an aging innovative biomarker, connected with nutritional status.

Copyright: © 2024 Rodrigues et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

MeSH terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Brazil / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Geriatric Assessment / methods
Humans
Independent Living
Male
Malnutrition* / epidemiology
Middle Aged
Nutrition Assessment
Nutritional Status
Risk Factors
Telomere Shortening
Telomere* / genetics

Grants and funding

Tábatta Brito was funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) (Grant No. APQ-01168-18; 001/2018). Daniela Lima was funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (Grant No. 429823/2018-5-MCTIC/CNPq No. 28/2018). Guilherme Furtado acknowledges support from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the institutional scientific employment program-contract (CEECINST/00077/2021). Sonia Brito-Costa and Ana Moisão acknowledges support from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) under the scope of the project UIDB/05198/2020 (Centre for Research and Innovation in Education, inED; Link: https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/05198/2020). The authors thank all the funders for their support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.