Effects and contents of nutrition education relating to sarcopenia and frailty for Japanese older adults: A systematic review.

This systematic review aimed to clarify whether nutrition education relating to sarcopenia and frailty for Japanese older adults has been effective and to identify the content of nutrition education that is provided to participants. We examined relevant studies published before January 2021. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (i) studies on nutrition education provided by experts; (ii) studies on Japanese participants aged 60 years or older; (iii) full papers published in English or Japanese; and (iv) studies with outcomes that include measurement items related to sarcopenia and frailty. A search strategy was designed using keywords such as "Japan" or "Japanese" and "nutrition education." In total, 798 titles and 179 abstracts were examined, and 63 full texts were selected for reading. Ten articles met all the inclusion criteria. Only two studies aimed to determine the effectiveness of nutrition education. We could not clarify whether nutrition education relating to sarcopenia and frailty for Japanese older adults was effective. However, we did identify various nutrition education contents on sarcopenia and frailty for Japanese older adults. Further studies are needed as follows: (i) studies designs that can determine whether nutrition education is effective; (ii) studies in which the content of the cooking training can be reproduced; (iii) studies in which the intervention group and the control group have the same educational content with different duration and frequency; (iv) studies that are written in English; and (v) studies that are conducted on men. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2021; 21: 1084-1092.

Serum DJ-1 level is positively associated with improvements in some aspects of metabolic syndrome in Japanese women through lifestyle intervention.

DJ-1 is a protein that is associated with Parkinson disease and cancer, and the reduction of DJ-1 function and expression is also thought to be a cause of diabetes and hypertension. However, little is known about the association between the plasma concentration of DJ-1 and risk of metabolic syndrome. We hypothesized that a lifestyle intervention would increase serum DJ-1 and that up-regulated DJ-1 functions will result in the prevention of metabolic syndrome. The objective of our study is to examine whether the level of serum DJ-1 is associated with the risk of metabolic syndrome. Therefore, to reveal the association between DJ-1 and metabolic syndrome, this study investigated lifestyle intervention in a control group (n = 37) and intervention group (n = 45). The results showed that body mass index, body fat ratio, waist-hip ratio, waist circumference, blood pressure, and plasma glucose level were improved in the intervention group, as compared with those in the control group. Furthermore, serum levels of DJ-1 were increased in the intervention group, when compared with those in the control group. These results suggest that serum DJ-1 is increased by lifestyle intervention and that increased serum DJ-1 prevents metabolic syndrome. Thus, the level of serum DJ-1 will become one of the indexes for the risk of metabolic syndrome.