Call for papers - Nutrition and aging

Guest Editors

Courtney Rose Davis, PhD, BSc, MDiet, University of South Australia, Australia
Eibhlís M. O’Connor, PhD, RNutr, University of Limerick, Ireland

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 1 March 2025

BMC Public Health is calling for submissions to our Collection on Nutrition and aging. This Collection aims to bring together research which highlights the role of nutrition in the aging process and its implications for public health. We are particularly interested in receiving submissions which address the following: optimal dietary intake and nutritional requirements for older populations, malnutrition and sarcopenia in aging, dietary-related chronic diseases in older populations, public health policies and interventions to improve nutritional status among older adults, dietary habits influencing healthy aging, and socioeconomic and cultural factors influencing nutrition and aging.

New Content Item This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being.

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Meet the Guest Editors

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Courtney Rose Davis, PhD, BSc, MDiet, University of South Australia, Australia

Dr Courtney Davis is mid-career research associate with the Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition, and Activity at the University of South Australia. She is a dietitian, researcher, and expert in the Mediterranean diet. Her research focuses on dietary patterns, behavior change and healthy aging. Dr Davis’s chief interests lie in preventative health measures through diet and physical activity, at both a population and individual level. Her research has covered the Mediterranean diet, dietary patterns and behavioural intervention technologies. She is currently working on a mixed methods project to enhance health amongst older adults who have experience delirium.

Eibhlís M. O’Connor, PhD, RNutr, University of Limerick, Ireland

Eibhlís M. O’Connor is an Associate Professor in Human Nutrition at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Limerick, Ireland. Her research interests include how diet can impact and modulate the gut microbiota and thus impact health in specific population groups including older adults, inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s Disease) and type 2 diabetes through human dietary intervention studies/clinical trials. Dr O’Connor has also a keen interest in the role of novel, vitamin-K dependent proteins in health and disease, and specifically those involved in bone metabolism, cognition, glucose regulation and cardiovascular health, and determinants of nutrient status/dietary determinants in older populations. More recently, she has also focused on researching diet/sustainability interactions (barriers and motivators of sustainable dietary practices).

About the Collection

BMC Public Health is calling for submissions to our Collection on Nutrition and aging.

Good nutrition across the lifespan helps support healthy aging by helping prevent chronic diseases including heart disease and cancer as well as conditions relating to bone and muscle mass changes such as osteoporosis.

As the global population continues to age, with one in six people in the world expected to be over age 65 by 2050, it is particularly important for older adults to follow a healthy diet to meet their nutritional requirements which may also be increased compared to younger adults. This population is typically also vulnerable to unhealthy dietary patterns, consuming energy dense foods with inadequate essential nutrients, therefore increasing their risk for obesity.

This Collection aims to bring together research which highlights the role of nutrition in the aging process and its implications for public health. We are particularly interested in receiving submissions which address the following:

Optimal dietary intake and nutritional requirements for older populations
Malnutrition and sarcopenia in aging
Dietary-related chronic diseases in older populations
Public health policies and interventions to improve nutritional status among older adults
Dietary habits influencing healthy aging
Socioeconomic and cultural factors influencing nutrition and aging

With the 2030 Agenda’s commitment to “leave no one behind”, there is now an opportunity to include aging as a core theme. The Sustainable Development Goals directly address the concerns of the older population by, among others, calling for the right to health “for all at all ages” (SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being).

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Nutrition and aging" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.