The nutritional pattern of frailty Proceedings from the 5th Italian Congress of Endocrinology of Aging, Parma, Italy, 2728 March 2009

Frailty has become one of the 'hot spots' in geriatric research. Frailty has multifactorial origin, and is regarded as a fundamental risk factor for deteriorating health status and disability in elderly people and is highly prevalent in the population above the age 65. It is estimates that prevalence rates up to 27% and pre-frailty rates up to 50% qualify for the term "epidemic". Although the role of nutritional deficiency in the development of age-related frailty was suggested long ago, research conducted in this area is relatively recent. The critical role of micronutrients in this context suggests the need to improve the quality of food eaten by elderly people whereas quantity of food appears to be less relevant. This review summarizes the recent literature on the nutritional pathways to frailty with particular focus on the effect of energy, protein and micronutrients.