Polyunsaturated fatty acids in relation to incident mobility disability and decline in gait speed; the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 69; no. 4; pp. 489 - 493
• Main Authors: Reinders, I, Murphy, R A, Song, X, Visser, M, Cotch, M F, Lang, T F, Garcia, M E, Launer, L J, Siggeirsdottir, K, Eiriksdottir, G, Jonsson, P V, Gudnason, V, Harris, T B, Brouwer, I A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.04.2015; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/443/7; 692/1807/2781; 692/700/1518; 692/700/2814; 82/16; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Body Mass Index; Clinical Nutrition; Confidence intervals; Cross-Sectional Studies; Demographics; Demography; Disability; Docosahexaenoic acid; Environment; Epidemiology; Fatty acids; Fatty Acids, Omega-3 - blood; Fatty Acids, Omega-6 - blood; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Food and nutrition; Gait; Gait - physiology; Gas chromatography; Health aspects; Health risk assessment; Humans; Internal Medicine; Logistic Models; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Men; Metabolic Diseases; Mobility; Mobility Limitation; Motor Activity; Multivariate Analysis; original-article; Phospholipids; Physically disabled persons; Polyunsaturated fatty acids; Population studies; Prospective Studies; Public Health; Regression analysis; Risk analysis; Risk Factors; Statistical analysis; Subgroups; Surveys and Questionnaires; Unsaturated fatty acids; Vitamin D; Waist Circumference; Walking; Women; Iceland
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/ejcn.2014.277

Background/Objectives: Low intake of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are associated with physical disability; however, prospective studies of circulating PUFAs are scarce. We examined associations between plasma phospholipid n −3 and n −6 PUFAs with risk of incident mobility disability and gait speed decline. Subjects/Methods: Data are from a subgroup of the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility–Reykjavik Study, a population-based study of risk factors for disease and disability in old age. In this subgroup ( n =556, mean age 75.1±5.0 years, 47.5% men), plasma phospholipid PUFAs were assessed at baseline using gas chromatography. Mobility disability and usual gait speed were assessed at baseline and after 5.2±0.2 years. Mobility disability was defined as the following: having much difficulty, or being unable to walk 500 m or climb up 10 steps; decline in gait speed was defined as change ⩾0.10 m/s. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine associations between sex-specific s.d. increments in PUFAs with risk of incident mobility disability and gait speed decline. Odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) adjusted for demographics, follow-up time, risk factors and serum vitamin D were reported. Results: In women, but not men, every s.d. increment increase of total n −3 PUFAs and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was associated with lower mobility disability risk, odds ratio 0.48 (0.25; 0.93) and odds ratio 0.45 (0.24; 0.83), respectively. There was no association between n −6 PUFAs and the risk of incident mobility disability or gait speed decline. Conclusions: Higher concentrations of n −3 PUFAs and, particularly, DHA may protect women from impaired mobility but does not appear to have such an effect in men.