Psycho-social aspects and zinc status: is there a relationship in favour of a successful ageing?
Fiorella Marcellini, *Cinzia Giuli, *Roberta Papa, **Eugenio Mocchegiani
*Social Gerontology Unit and **Immunology Ctr. (Section Nutrition, Immunity and Ageing), Res. Dept, INRCA (Italian National Research Centres on Ageing), Ancona, Italy
The ZINCAGE Project (contract no: Food-CT-2003-506850) is supported by
the European Commission in the Sixth Framework Programme.. It is a
large study that evaluates the effect of the zinc metabolism in order
to reach healthy ageing, with a multidisciplinar approach (genetic,
biochemical and social-psychological). One of the aim of the study is
the evaluation of the relationship between zinc and psychosocial
conditions (such as cognitive functions, mood, perceived stress value),
dietary habits and lifestyle (i.e. diet, smoking and alcohol
consumption, physical activity) in old healthy and nonagenarian
subjects, recruited in 5 European Countries (Greece, Germany, France,
Italy, Poland). At baseline, a protocol of tests and questionnaires was
used: the "Life-style Questionnaire"; the "Frequency Food
Questionnaire"; the "Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE, Folstein
1975)"; the "Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS 15 items, Yesavage 1983)";
the "Perceived Stress Scale (PSS, Cohen 1983)". In Italy, the
evaluation at baseline was carried out on a sample of old and
nonagenarian subjects. Age is classified in 3 groups [65-74 years old
(n. 80); 75 to 84 years old (n. 74); older than 85, including
nonagenarians/centenarians (n. 20)]. The preliminary results show that
69.7% of the total sample has no cognitive impairment and that
cognitive impairment was more present between subjects aged 85 and
over. 66.5% of the sample has a value of the GDS scale indicating no
depression, while older subjects (85 and over years old) had a mean
value of depression higher than the two younger groups. The mean value
of perceived stress of females is higher than mean value of males,
while the older group (85 and over years old) has a value of perceived
stress higher than younger groups. Considering the effect of age, the
cognitive impairment and perceived stress in elderly are poorly
correlated with deficient albumin plasma value, which is an indirect
index of the zinc status. Therefore, in our Italian old subjects the
possible circulating zinc deficiency is poorly related with cognitive
impairment and perceived stress, which are in turn more pronounced in
very old age. This fact suggests that other factors may be involved in
decreased cognitive functions in elderly. Among them, genetic
background (polymorphisms of proteins related to zinc status) may be
involved. Zincage project, which also includes zinc supplementation,
will allow to identify the role played by this genetic background for
cognitive functions and memory, mood, depression and perceived stress
in elderly, especially between Northern and Southern European Countries
because of different dietary habits.
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