Olive oil consumption is associated with lower frailty risk: a prospective cohort study of community-dwelling older adults

Background: There is no evidence on the specific beneficial association of the main types of olive oil consumption with frailty. Objective: The aim was to assess the relationship between olive oil consumption and incident frailty in community-dwelling older adults. Design: Prospective cohort. Setting: Participants were recruited in 2008-10 and follow-up through 2013. Subjects: In total, 1,896 older adults aged 60+. Methods: At baseline, olive oil and other food consumption was collected using a validated dietary history. Incident frailty was defined as having at least three of the following five Fried-based criteria: low physical activity, fatigue, slow walking, muscle weakness and unintentional weight loss. Analyses were performed with logistic regression and adjusted for the major confounders. Results: Over a mean follow-up of 3.5 years, 135 incident frailty cases were identified. The odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of frailty across sex-specific tertiles of total olive oil consumption (12.7, 20 and 30.8 g/day, respectively) were: 1 (ref.), 0.52 (0.32, 0.83) and 0.47 (0.29, 0.78), P trend 0.003. When differentiating by olive oil types, the results held for virgin but did not for common (refined) olive oil. Conclusion: The highest total olive oil consumption (∼3 tablespoons), especially if virgin, was associated with half the risk of frailty as the lowest consumption (∼1 tablespoon) among older adults. This study suggests that virgin olive oil should be the preferent culinary olive oil type for frailty prevention. If confirmed in other settings, small doses of virgin olive oil could be added as a simple geriatric nutritional advice on the prevention of frailty.