title: Co-occurrence of cardiometabolic diseases and frailty in older Chinese adults in the Beijing Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  all cardiometabolic disorders become more common with age. Frailty and increased vulnerability to adverse outcomes are also common with aging. Even so, how commonly elderly people who are affected by cardiometabolic disorders are also frail remains unclear.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  (i) to evaluate the prevalence of cardiometabolic disorders in relation to frailty. (ii) To estimate to which extent cardiometabolic diseases, when compared with frailty, affects mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  this is a secondary analysis of the Beijing Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a population-based representative cohort study (n = 3,257) assembled in 1992 and followed to 2007. The baseline frailty index (FI) considered 35 potential health deficits. People with an FI >0.22 were considered frail. The relationships between frailty and cardiometabolic disorders and mortality outcomes were evaluated using the Cox proportional hazard model, adjusted for baseline age, sex and education.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the mean FI was 0.11 in men (SD = 0.10) and 0.14 (SD = 0.11) in women. On average, the FI increased with each cardiometabolic disorder (e.g. in men, mean ± SD = 0.16 ± 0.11 with hypertension, 0.23 ± 0.14 with stroke). As the number of disorders increased, so did the mean FI, and the proportion with the FI >0.22. For each condition, people with the FI >0.22 had a higher mortality, even after adjusting for sex, age and education.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  cardiometabolic disorders do not occur in isolation and commonly increase not just together, but in the presence of other health deficits. Healthcare providers who work with older adults with such problems need to develop methods to adapt their treatments to the needs of frail older adults.
authors: Department of Evidence-based Medicine, Xuanwu Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors: Zhe
authors: Z
authors: Tang
authors: Chunxiu
authors: C
authors: Wang
authors: Xiaowei
authors: X
authors: Song
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Shi
authors: Arnold
authors: A
authors: Mitnitski
authors: Xianghua
authors: X
authors: Fang
authors: Pulin
authors: P
authors: Yu
authors: Kenneth
authors: K
authors: Rockwood
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000453:epidemiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015995:Prevalence; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors