In the study, healthy ageing was defined as survival without chronic diseases (i.e. cardiovascular disease, cancer, lung disease, and severe chronic kidney disease), the absence of cognitive and physical dysfunction, or death from other causes not part of the healthy ageing outcome after age 65. The researchers suggest their findings support guidelines for increased dietary consumption of n3-PUFAs in older adults.
According to an editorial, there is a rich body of literature suggesting a protective role of n3-PUFAs in reducing cardiovascular risk, whereas mixed or inconclusive findings have been reported for the other components of the unhealthy ageing examined in this study: cancer, lung disease, severe chronic kidney disease, and cognitive and physical dysfunction. It notes self-reported dietary data that are potentially subject to recall bias and measurement errors may partially contribute to these inconsistencies. It suggests this is where this current study makes a valuable contribution, by combining reported dietary data with repeated measurements of biomarkers to account for trends over time in individual n3-PUFAs. It concludes that epidemiological associations cannot infer causality, so caution is needed in interpreting these findings to inform public health policy or nutritional guidelines, but it acknowledges that following the WHO’s policy framework for healthy ageing, any evidence based clues to improve health in later life are welcome.