Efeitos de uma suplementação com aminoácidos de cadeia ramificada em longevos do Projeto AMPAL

Abstract

Introduction: The oldest-old population has particularities regarding their habits and lifestyle. One of these particularities concerns nutrition and diet, which highlights some nutritional compromises - a section of these elderly is at nutritional risk due to low body mass index, low weight and malnutrition also evidenced by biochemical parameters. These anthropometric parameters are associated with low functionality, loss of muscle mass, decreased upper and lower limb strength, negatively affecting autonomy. Nutritional intervention in this population may contribute to better nutritional status with possible beneficial effects on functionality and other negative effects related to malnutrition in the elderly. Objective: To verify the effects of supplementation with branched-chain amino acids on oldest-old people. Methods: This is a randomized, open (not blind), longitudinal, quantitative and analytical clinical trial. The project was developed with an intervention group (GI) that received a dietary supplement for 3 months and a control group (CG). The sample consisted of men and women aged 90 years and over, followed by the Multiprofessional Care Oldest-old Project. Results: In GI, the follow-up was completed with 10 participants (8 women and 2 men), and the CG ended with 19 (10 women and 9 men). The average age of the participants was 93.5 ± 2.93 years. The relationship between research groups and sociodemographic characteristics were not significant, except for the variable of with whom the participant lives (p = 0.0487). The CG had a higher frequency of participants living alone and a lower frequency of participants living with a caregiver. At the end of follow-up, the lean mass increased in the GI by 1.1 ± 1.69kg it decreased in the CG by 0.1 ± 4.19kg (0.4286), which showed a decrease in weight by 1.7 ± 3, 53kg, contrary to what happened in GI, which presented an increase of 0.6 ± 2.29kg and this difference is indicative of statistical significance (0.0804). Serum albumin showed a mean increase in both groups, being higher in GI (0.2 ± 0.21mg / dl) than in CG (0.1 ± 0.26mg / dl, p = 0.4447). The same is true for serum hemoglobin; in GI the increase was 1.3 ± 0.81g / dl and in the control 0.5 ± 1.64g / dl (p = 0.1524). Anthropometric parameters increased in GI and decreased in CG, being significant for BMI (p = 0.0428). Among the functional performance parameters, FPPD improved GI and worsened CG (p = 0.1685), as did TUG (p = 0.1797). Conclusion: The results of this research allow us to conclude that supplementation by branched-chain amino acids in nonagenarians and centenarians has been shown to be efficient in producing improvements in body composition, functional performance and biochemical parameters. We believe that new nutritional interventions could benefit the longevity of the people in this aging group by 11 improving their quality of life and serving as a benchmark for the development of technologies for this growing and unmanaged population in the country.