Chronic undernutrition is a common condition in older people, and is clearly an important component of frailty. However, the effect of protein-energy nutritional supplementation on the functional status of frail older people is controversial. Some investigators suggested that, if nutritional or functional status has deteriorated too far, it could be very difficult for single nutritional supplementation to reverse malnutrition progression or functional decline.~The investigators believe one of the reasons for these ineffective results, especially for the community-dwelling frail elderly, may be due to a lack of regard to the socioeconomic status of the study population. For this reason, the investigators recruited a study sample with low socioeconomic status and evaluated the effect of protein-energy nutritional supplementation on their disability scores and physical performance.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether protein-energy nutritional supplementation improves geriatric function in community-dwelling frail older adults of low socioeconomic status.