Frailty and Cognitive Impairment in ESRD

Abstract

Background: The main impact of frailty in older adults stems from its effect on physical function. Frailty is associated with adverse health outcomes and low cognitive function. Some reports indicate that prefrailty is not associated with cognitive impairment.We examined whether frailty or prefrailty is associated with cognitive impairment. Method(s): This study is based on a prospective, multicenter study to establish a dementia cohort. From May 2015, we enrolled 259 cognitively normal (NL), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer's de-mentia (AD) people with the ratio of 2:1:1. Since December 2015, we measured Fried Frailty Index includ-ing weight loss, fatigue, physical activity walking speed, and grip strength, and gave 1 point for each item. The higher the score, the lower the performance, and considered frailty; if the score is 0, it is robust, 1 and 2 points are prefrailty, 3 points or more are considered frailty. Result(s): Total 149 people were enrolled for this study; 76 NL, 42 MCI, and 31 AD. In the NL and MCI groups, the most frequent was the robust (frailty score 0), but in AD, the frailty score 2 was the most common. The frailty score of 4 or more was the only one in AD group. When we classified these people into robust, prefrailty, and frailty, the number of the people was 67, 72, and 10 respectively.We excluded 10 frailty pa-tients, and analyzed NL, MCI, and AD people into robust and prefrailty. In NL and MCI groups, GDS showed statistical significant in robust and prefrailty. In MCI groups, the prefrailty groupwas older, the CDR (SOB), andMini Nutritional Assessment were higher than the robust group. Discussion(s): Frailty/prefrailty can be reversed through early intervention. Not of frailty but also prefrailty is associated with cognitive impairment.