Associations of Dietary Inflammatory Index Scores with the disability status and subjective health of older adults living in non-urban municipalities in Nagasaki and Ishikawa Prefectures, Japan.

OBJECTIVE

To examine associations of Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) scores with disability and subjective health, which is prognostic of disability, in a large, systematically sampled population of older adults living in non-urban areas in Japan.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional. The Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of Competence was used to assess disability. Both overall disability and disabilities in components of everyday competence (instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), intellectual activities and social participation) were examined. Participants who reported an inability to perform one or more activities were categorised as disabled. Subjective health was assessed based on the response to the following question: 'In general, how do you feel about your own health?'

SETTING

Six non-urban municipalities in Japan that differ in terms of regional characteristics.

PARTICIPANTS

Adults aged 65-74 years ( 7930).

RESULTS

DII scores were positively associated with the odds of overall disability (OR (95 % CI)) = 1·23 (1·19, 1·28)); disabilities in IADL (OR (95 % CI) = 1·10 (1·05, 1·15)); intellectual activities (OR (95 % CI) = 1·28 (1·23, 1·33)); social participation (OR (95 % CI) = 1·17 (1·13, 1·22)) and poor subjective health (OR (95 %CI) = 1·09 (1·05, 1·14)).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results imply the importance of reducing dietary inflammation to prevent both disability and a decline in subjective health, a predictor of disability.