Older people who consume a Mediterranean diet may have a reduced risk of becoming frail, new research suggests.

Frailty is relatively common among older people, often leading to weight loss, poor muscle strength and low energy. Frailty also increases the risk of a number of health issues, such as falls, fractures, disability and dementia and frail people are more likely to require hospitalisation or nursing home care.

Nutrition is thought to have a key role to play in the development of frailty, so UK researchers set out to assess if the Mediterranean diet offered any benefits.

A Mediterranean-style diets include high amounts of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fish and poultry. The consumption of red meat, saturated fats and dairy products is limited.

The researchers analysed four studies from France, Italy, Spain and China, involving almost 6,000 people.

"We found the evidence was very consistent that older people who follow a Mediterranean diet had a lower risk of becoming frail. People who followed a Mediterranean diet the most were overall less than half as likely to become frail over a nearly four-year period compared with those who followed it the least," explained Dr Kate Walters of University College London.

The team suggested that this type of diet may help older people to maintain muscle strength, energy levels and a healthy weight.

"Our study supports the growing body of evidence on the potential health benefits of a Mediterranean diet, in our case for potentially helping older people to stay well as they age," said Dr Gotaro Kojima, also of University College London.

The researchers said that large scale studies are now needed to ‘look at whether increasing how much you follow a Mediterranean diet will reduce your risk of becoming frail'.

Details of these findings are published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.