The association between dietary diversity and
frailty remains unknown in older people. We evaluated whether a limited dietary variety is associated with
frailty in older adults with
diabetes mellitus (DM). This cross-sectional investigation included 1357 adults (median age: 77 years, women: 61.3%). DM was determined by self-reporting, the Dietary Variety Score (DVS) was used to evaluate dietary variety, and the revised Japanese version of the Cardiovascular Health Study criteria evaluated
frailty. Participants were divided into 4 groups: no DM/high DVS (non-
DMHV), no DM/low DVS (non-DMLV), DM/high DVS (
DMHV), and DM/low DVS (DMLV). The prevalence of
frailty in each group was 3.6%, 6.7%, 6.7%, and 12.2%. After adjusting for covariates, logistic regression analysis revealed the highest odds ratio (OR) of
frailty in the DMLV (non-DMLV, OR = 2.18 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25-3.83);
DMHV, OR = 1.87 (95% CI: 0.63-5.52); DML, OR = 5.03 (95% CI: 2.05-12.35)). Another logistic regression analysis revealed that a low DVS and DM were independently associated with
frailty. Both a low dietary variety and DM were independently related to
frailty in older people and the combination increased the prevalence of
frailty. These findings suggest that high dietary variety could be important for the prevention of
frailty in people with DM.