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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1580753
The association between the dietary index for gut microbiota and frailty: a cross-sectional study
Provisionally accepted- Suining Central Hospital, Suining, China
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Background: Frailty severely impacts patients' quality of life and imposes a significant burden on healthcare systems. The Dietary Index for Gut Microbiota (DI-GM) is an emerging dietary indicator, and its association with frailty has not been thoroughly investigated.Methods:This study utilized data from NHANES 2007-2018 and assessed the association between DI-GM and frailty using multivariable weighted logistic regression, restricted cubic splines (RCS), subgroup analysis, and mediation analysis, after adjusting for relevant covariates.Results:The results indicate a significant negative correlation between DI-GM and frailty, with each standard unit increase in DI-GM reducing the risk of frailty by 6% (OR = 0.940 [0.899, 0.984]). DI-GM at different quartiles showed a strong dose-response relationship, with the highest quartile showing a 21.6% risk reduction. RCS analysis revealed a linear relationship between DI-GM and frailty. Subgroup analysis suggested that age and smoking status may influence the association between DI-GM and frailty. Furthermore, albumin and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) played significant mediating roles in the relationship between DI-GM and frailty, accounting for 30.34% and 9.05% of the total effect, respectively.Conclusion:DI-GM is negatively associated with frailty risk, and albumin and HDL mediate this association. Improving dietary quality may be an effective strategy for reducing frailty risk.
Keywords: Diet index, Gut Microbiota, Dietary Index for Gut Microbiota, Frailty, NHANES
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 11 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wei, Yu and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shouxin Wei, Suining Central Hospital, Suining, China
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