Abstract
BACKGROUND: Older adults are vulnerable to mistimed food intake due to health and environmental changes; characterizing meal timing may inform strategies to promote healthy aging. We investigated longitudinal trajectories of self-reported meal timing in older adults and their associations with morbidity, genetic profiles, and all-cause mortality. METHODS: We analyzed data from 2945 community-dwelling older adults from the University of Manchester Longitudinal Study of Cognition in Normal Healthy Old Age, with up to five repeated assessments of meal timing and health behaviors conducted between 1983 and 2017. Linear mixed-effects models, latent class analysis, and Cox regression were used to examine relationships between meal timing with illness and behavioral factors, genetic scores for chronotype and obesity, and mortality. RESULTS: Here we show older age is associated with later breakfast and dinner times, a later eating midpoint, and a shorter daily eating window. Physical and psychological illnesses, including fatigue, oral health problems, depression, anxiety, and multimorbidity, are primarily associated with later breakfast. Genetic profiles related to an evening chronotype, but not obesity, are linked to later meals. Later breakfast timing is also associated with increased mortality. Latent class analysis of meal timing trajectories identify early and late eating groups, with 10-year survival rates of 86.7% in the late eating group compared to 89.5% in the early eating group. CONCLUSIONS: Meal timing, particularly later breakfast, shifts with age and may reflect broader health changes in older adults, with implications for morbidity and longevity.