Association between cardiovascular health metrics and frailty in a taiwanese population

Abstract

Introduction: Frailty is known as a reduced response to stressors and an increased vulnerability to adverse health events. Early intervention for individuals with risk factors for frailty will improve their outcomes. Despite the growing amount of evidence indicating that cardiovascular disease is associated with frailty, the evidence for primary prevention is poor. Materials and Methods: The data were drawn from the MJ Health Management Institution and were cross-sectional design. The participants were general population. Cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics included smoking status, body mass index, healthy diet score, physical activity, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose. The definition of frailty was modified from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures Frailty Index. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine the associations among CVH metrics, individual components of frailty, and frailty itself. Results: The mean age of 37,843 participants was 62.15 ± 7.66 years. Overall, 19.2% of the participants were defined as having frailty. When those with 0-2 ideal CVH metrics were used as the reference group, the odds ratios for frailty were 0.68 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.56-0.82) for those with 3-4 ideal CVH metrics and 0.36 (95% CI, 0.23-0.55) for those with 5-7 ideal CVH metrics after adjustment for potential confounders. Conclusions: Our results suggested a significantly lower risk of frailty among older individuals with more ideal CVH metrics. These findings suggest that attaining ideal CVH metrics has the potential to reduce the burden of frailty.