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A study was conducted in healthy elderly living independently in senior housing to assess the impact of a probiotic yoghurt supplement on small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Twenty-three participants with positive and thirteen participants with negative hydrogen breath test were studied before and after a period of 4 weeks of probiotic yoghurt administration. Intestinal permeability, plasma endotoxin levels, phagocytic activity of leucocytes, cytokine production by monocytes and free radical response of neutrophils were determined. Intestinal permeability was similar for the two groups and was unaffected by probiotic treatment. Both plasma endotoxin levels and the basal phagocytic activity of leucocytes decreased after yoghurt intake in the two groups. Exposure of monocytes and neutrophils ex vivo led to an increased cytokine response and free radical response, respectively. The normalisation of the various cytokine responses was more apparent in the group with positive breath test. In addition, the plasma levels of lipoplysaccharide binding protein and soluble CD14, lipoplysaccharide pattern recognition receptors and surrogate markers of lipoplysaccharide permeability were diminished by the end of the study. In conclusion, probiotic administration in the elderly normalises the response to endotoxin, and modulates activation markers in blood phagocytes, and therefore may help reduce low-grade chronic inflammation

OBJECTIVES: To provide pooled data on the prevalence of malnutrition in elderly people as evaluated using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). DESIGN: Retrospective pooled analysis of previously published datasets. SETTING: Hospital, rehabilitation, nursing home, community. PARTICIPANTS: Four thousand five hundred seven people (75.2% female) with a mean age of 82.3. MEASUREMENTS: The prevalence of malnutrition in the combined database and in the four settings was examined. RESULTS: Twenty-four data sets with information on full MNA classification from researchers from 12 countries were submitted. In the combined database, the prevalence of malnutrition was 22.8%, with considerable differences between the settings (rehabilitation, 50.5%; hospital, 38.7%; nursing home, 13.8%; community, 5.8%). In the combined database, the “at risk” group had a prevalence of 46.2%. Consequently, approximately two-thirds of study participants were at nutritional risk or malnourished. CONCLUSION: The MNA has gained worldwide acceptance and shows a high prevalence of malnutrition in different settings, except for the community. Because of its specific geriatric focus, the MNA should be recommended as the basis for nutritional evaluation in older people.

Objective: To validate a revision of the Mini Nutritional Assessment short-form (MNA®-SF) against the full MNA, a standard tool for nutritional evaluation. Methods: A literature search identified studies that used the MNA for nutritional screening in geriatric patients. The contacted authors submitted original datasets that were merged into a single database. Various combinations of the questions on the current MNA-SF were tested using this database through combination analysis and ROC based derivation of classification thresholds. Results: Twenty-seven datasets (n=6257 participants) were initially processed from which twelve were used in the current analysis on a sample of 2032 study participants (mean age 82.3y) with complete information on all MNA items. The original MNA-SF was a combination of six questions from the full MNA. A revised MNA-SF included calf circumference (CC) substituted for BMI performed equally well. A revised three-category scoring classification for this revised MNA-SF, using BMI and/or CC, had good sensitivity compared to the full MNA. Conclusion: The newly revised MNA-SF is a valid nutritional screening tool applicable to geriatric health care professionals with the option of using CC when BMI cannot be calculated. This revised MNA-SF increases the applicability of this rapid screening tool in clinical practice through the inclusion of a “malnourished” category.

MNA-international Group, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

A study was conducted in healthy elderly living independently in senior housing to assess the impact of a probiotic yoghurt supplement on small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Twenty-three participants with positive and thirteen participants with negative hydrogen breath test were studied before and after a period of 4 weeks of probiotic yoghurt administration. Intestinal permeability, plasma endotoxin levels, phagocytic activity of leucocytes, cytokine production by monocytes and free radical response of neutrophils were determined. Intestinal permeability was similar for the two groups and was unaffected by probiotic treatment. Both plasma endotoxin levels and the basal phagocytic activity of leucocytes decreased after yoghurt intake in the two groups. Exposure of monocytes and neutrophils ex vivo led to an increased cytokine response and free radical response, respectively. The normalisation of the various cytokine responses was more apparent in the group with positive breath test. In addition, the plasma levels of lipoplysaccharide binding protein and soluble CD14, lipoplysaccharide pattern recognition receptors and surrogate markers of lipoplysaccharide permeability were diminished by the end of the study. In conclusion, probiotic administration in the elderly normalises the response to endotoxin, and modulates activation markers in blood phagocytes, and therefore may help reduce low-grade chronic inflammation