TY - JOUR
T1 - Association between inflammatory-related disease burden and frailty
T2 - Results from the Women's Health and Aging Studies (WHAS) I and II
AU - Chang, Sandy S.
AU - Weiss, Carlos Orval
AU - Xue, Qian Li
AU - Fried, Linda P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (grant numbers N01 AG12112 , R01 AG11703 , R37 AG19905 , and T32 AG00247 to SSC); the National Institutes of Health-National Center for Research Resources (grant number UL1 RR 025005 ); the John A. Hartford Foundation Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine at Yale University (grant number 2007-0009 to SSC); the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Amos Medical Faculty Development Program to COW; and the Johns Hopkins Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (grant number P30-AG02133 to QLX). The contents of this manuscript are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the National Institute on Aging and National Institutes of Health-National Center for Research Resources, John A. Hartford Foundation, or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
PY - 2012/1
Y1 - 2012/1
N2 - Frailty is associated with a pro-inflammatory state, which has been characterized by elevated levels of systemic inflammatory biomarkers, but has not been related to the number of co-existing chronic diseases associated with inflammation. We sought to determine the extent to which a higher number of inflammatory-related diseases is associated with frailty and to identify the most common disease patterns associated with being frail in older adults. We performed binomial regression analyses to assess whether a higher count of inflammatory-related diseases increases the probability of frailty using data from the WHAS I and II, companion cohorts composed of 70-79-year-old community-dwelling older women in Baltimore, Maryland (n= 620). An increase of one inflammatory-related disease was associated log-linearly with frailty (Prevalence Ratio (PR) = 2.28, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.81-2.87). After adjusting for age, race, education, and smoking status, the probability of frailty remained significant (PR = 1.97, 95%CI = 1.52-2.55). In the frail population, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and depressive symptoms (Prevalence = 22.9%, 95%CI = 14.2-34.8%); CVD and depressive symptoms (21.7%, 95%CI = 13.2-33.5%); CKD and anemia (18.7%, 95%CI = 11.1-29.7%); cardiovascular disease (CVD), CKD, and pulmonary disease (10.7%, 95%CI = 5.2-21.0%); CKD, anemia, and depressive symptoms (8.7%, 95%CI = 3.9-18.2%); and CVD, anemia, pulmonary disease, and depressive symptoms (5.0%, 95%CI = 1.6-14.4%) were among the most frequent disease combinations. Their prevalence percentages were significantly higher in the frail versus non-frail women. A higher inflammatory-related disease count, perhaps reflecting a greater pro-inflammatory burden, increases the likelihood of frailty. Shared mechanisms among specific disease combinations may further contribute to this risk.
AB - Frailty is associated with a pro-inflammatory state, which has been characterized by elevated levels of systemic inflammatory biomarkers, but has not been related to the number of co-existing chronic diseases associated with inflammation. We sought to determine the extent to which a higher number of inflammatory-related diseases is associated with frailty and to identify the most common disease patterns associated with being frail in older adults. We performed binomial regression analyses to assess whether a higher count of inflammatory-related diseases increases the probability of frailty using data from the WHAS I and II, companion cohorts composed of 70-79-year-old community-dwelling older women in Baltimore, Maryland (n= 620). An increase of one inflammatory-related disease was associated log-linearly with frailty (Prevalence Ratio (PR) = 2.28, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.81-2.87). After adjusting for age, race, education, and smoking status, the probability of frailty remained significant (PR = 1.97, 95%CI = 1.52-2.55). In the frail population, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and depressive symptoms (Prevalence = 22.9%, 95%CI = 14.2-34.8%); CVD and depressive symptoms (21.7%, 95%CI = 13.2-33.5%); CKD and anemia (18.7%, 95%CI = 11.1-29.7%); cardiovascular disease (CVD), CKD, and pulmonary disease (10.7%, 95%CI = 5.2-21.0%); CKD, anemia, and depressive symptoms (8.7%, 95%CI = 3.9-18.2%); and CVD, anemia, pulmonary disease, and depressive symptoms (5.0%, 95%CI = 1.6-14.4%) were among the most frequent disease combinations. Their prevalence percentages were significantly higher in the frail versus non-frail women. A higher inflammatory-related disease count, perhaps reflecting a greater pro-inflammatory burden, increases the likelihood of frailty. Shared mechanisms among specific disease combinations may further contribute to this risk.
KW - Comorbidity
KW - Frailty
KW - Inflammation
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U2 - 10.1016/j.archger.2011.05.020
DO - 10.1016/j.archger.2011.05.020
M3 - Article
C2 - 21763008
AN - SCOPUS:80054906742
VL - 54
SP - 9
EP - 15
JO - Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
JF - Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
SN - 0167-4943
IS - 1
ER -