Review on microbiota and effectiveness of probiotics use in older

Table 1 Changes in the composition of the microbiota of the treated group when compared to the placebo group

Design of the study	Subjects	Age	Probiotics	Results in intervention vs placebo	Ref.
Double blinded controlled trial	n = 33 placebo group;	83 ± 7 yr	Oat drink fermented with Bifidobacter um longum and B. longum	↑B.catenulatum	Lahtinen et al[28]
				↑B. bifidum
	n = 33 control group	84 ± 8 yr		↑B. breve
Double blinded controlled trial	n = 20 placebo;	> 60 yr	Reconstituted skim milk containing Bifidobacterium lactis	↑Bifidobatteri	Ahmed et al[29]
	n = 20 low dose of probiotics;			↑Lactobacilli
	n = 20 medium dose of probiotics;			↑Enterococci
	n = 20 high dose of probiotics			↓Enterobatteri
Double blinded controlled trial	n = 9 placebo	Mean 71 yr	Bifidobacterium bifidum and B. lactis	↑Bifidobacteria	Bartosch et al[4]
		Mean 73 yr	together with	↑Lactobacilli
	n = 9 symbionts (mixture of probiotics and prebiotics)		inulin	↓B. bifidum