{
  "abstract": "BackgroundIntrinsic capacity (IC), the WHO composite of physical and mental capacities, is a central endpoint for healthy ageing. Whether dietary patterns measured across midlife and late life predict IC decline and mortality in very old populations remains unclear.MethodsWe analysed 16,068 Chinese adults aged ≥65 years from the CLHLS (2008–2018; 9,359 deaths over 63,132 person-years). Eight harmonised food groups were scored from recalled midlife (≈age 60) and late-life (2008 baseline) reports, cross-classified into stable-high, improved, worsened, and stable-low groups, and separately clustered into data-driven latent classes. Outcomes were all-cause mortality, repeated IC trajectories (IPCW-weighted GEE), incident IC impairment, and observed 10-year IC status.ResultsRelative to stable-high, the worsened (HR 1.135, 95% CI 1.055–1.222) and stable-low (HR 1.056, 1.008–1.107) groups had higher mortality after disease burden was entered categorically; each 10-point higher late-life score was associated with lower mortality (HR 0.969, 0.943–0.996), whereas recalled midlife score showed no independent association. The stable-low group declined faster in IC (group-by-year p = 0.028), and data-driven low-quality classes declined four- to eightfold faster than the diverse class. No dietary pattern independently predicted incident IC impairment once death was handled as a competing event. By 2018, mortality showed the clearest gradient (28–30% dead in diverse classes vs. 47–48% in poor classes).ConclusionIn this nationwide cohort of older adults, varied dietary profiles were associated with modestly lower mortality and slower IC decline. The mortality association was more evident for late-life diet than for recalled midlife diet, and this pattern was retained in complete-diet-item sensitivity analyses; however, these estimates are not a formal test of a difference between life-stage associations. Associations with incident IC impairment were not consistently supported in the competing-event analysis.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "epartment of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Third People's Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Dejun Cun"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Guobin Xia"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Jing Chen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ye Zhang"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ent7pc4nh7fcn.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fnut.2026.2001769",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2026.2001769/full",
  "id": "ent7pc4nh7fcn",
  "issns": [
    "2296-861X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2026.2001769",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "lcc",
      "TX341-641"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-02",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media S.A.",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ent7pc4nh7fcn.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T14:21:12Z",
      "native_id": "03c15ccaabcd41ea823dd9268213c8b8",
      "source": "doaj",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2026.2001769"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "lcc:TX341-641",
      "subfield": "nutrition"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Dietary deterioration from midlife to late life, intrinsic capacity decline, and mortality: a 10-year CLHLS study",
  "title_text": "Dietary deterioration from midlife to late life, intrinsic capacity decline, and mortality: a 10-year CLHLS study",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T14:20:14Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ent7pc4nh7fcn",
  "venue": "Frontiers in Nutrition",
  "versions": []
}