![Joel Cramer, associate professor, Nutrition and Health Sciences](https://cehs.unl.edu/images/news/joel%20cramer%2016x9%2072.jpg)
Cramer’s nutritional supplement research published in JAMDA
09 Dec 2016
Joel Cramer, associate professor of nutrition and health sciences, was recently published in JAMDA, the journal of the Society for Post-acute and Long-term Care Medicine (AMDA), for his research with experimental oral nutritional supplements in older adults with mild to moderate sarcopenia. Cramer and his research colleagues partnered with Abbott Nutrition to “determine the intersections between malnutrition and sarcopenia, and to look for new evidence-based care practices to ultimately improve outcomes for vulnerable patients,” Cramer told “Caring for the Ages,” the newspaper of AMDA.
Research participants were 65 and older from Europe and North America who had both malnutrition and sarcopenia, the gradual loss of muscle mass due to aging. They received either a control supplement or the experimental supplement that they drank twice daily for 24 weeks. Cramer’s team measured participant leg strength, muscle quality, grip strength and gait speed at three points during the research.
Both groups showed improvement in the measurements but individuals with mild to moderate sarcopenia taking the experimental supplement fared better. “We didn’t expect to see such impactful results, especially since this study set the bar high with comparing a specialized nutritional product to ‘standard-of-care’ high-protein nutritional product, and most nutrition studies compare to a placebo,” Cramer said. “Also, we examined a complex patient population since our subjects had malnutrition, sarcopenia, and advanced age. But at the end of the day, we expected to find that proper nutritional interventions would improve outcomes for these patients.”
Cramer’s research team included Alfonso J. Cruz-Jentoft, Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain; Francesco Landi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy; Mary Hickson, Plymouth University, Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom; Mauro Zamboni, Università degli Studi di Verona, Verona, Italy; and Deborah S. Hustead and Vikkie A. Mustad, Abbott Nutrition, Columbus, Ohio.
For access to the JAMDA article, visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2016.08.009.
This article sourced content and quotes from an article in the November 2016 issue of “Caring for the Ages” written by Jeffrey S. Eisenberg.
College of Education and Human Sciences
Nutrition and Health Sciences