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Prevalence and Its Associated Factors of Physical Frailty and Cognitive Impairment: Findings from the West China Health and Aging Trend Study (WCHAT)

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The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Objectives

Previous literature has reported that physical frailty (PF) closely associated with cognitive impairment (CI). In this study, we aim to describe and evaluate the prevalence and associated factors with different patterns of PF and cognitive impairment.

Design

A cross-sectional study.

Setting and participants

Community-dwelling older adults aged ≥60 from the West China Health and Aging Trend (WCHAT) study were included in this study.

Measurements

Participants were assessed the PF and cognitive impairment. PF was assessed using the physical phenotype as defined by Fried’s criteria. Cognitive impairment was identified using the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ). According different patterns of PF and cognitive impairment, participants were divided into 4 groups: not-PF and cognitive intact (“neither” group), not-PF and cognitive impairment (“CI only” group), PF and cognitive intact (“PF only” group), and PF and cognitive impairment (“both” group). Multinomial logistic regression was used to explore the association between medical conditions and different patterns of PF and cognitive impairment after adjusting the demographic characteristics.

Results

Among 4,103 participants (age 67.8 ± 5.9 years, female 58.3%), 78.8%, 3.9%, 14.5% and 2.9% were “neither”, “PF only”, “CI only”, and “both”, respectively. The prevalence of “PF only”, “CI only” and “both” were associated with age, lower education level and single status. In addition, there was substantial ethnicity heterogeneity in the prevalence of different patterns of PF and cognitive impairment. Comparing with “neither”, PF and/or cognitive impairment had higher association with depression, ADLs impairment, and malnutrition. Of note, obesity was only significantly associated with “PF only”, but not associated with “CI only” or “both”.

Conclusions

We found the substantial demographic and medical conditions disparities in different patterns of PF and cognitive impairment. Further research should focus on the efficient and practical screen to predict the risk of “PF only”, “CI only” and “both”.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by 1.3.5 project for disciplines of excellence, West China Hospital, Sichuan University; National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC0840100 and 2017YFC0840101); Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2018TJPT0015, 2018JY0094); National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China Hospital (Z20191007). The financial sponsors had no role in the design, implementation, analyses, or reporting of the results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Center of Gerontology and Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, GuoXueXiang 37, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 610041

    M. Ge, Y. Zhang, W. Zhao, J. Yue, Y. Zhao, X. Liu, Birong Dong & Ning Ge

  2. National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    M. Ge, Y. Zhang, W. Zhao, J. Yue, L. Hou, X. Xia, Y. Zhao, X. Liu, Birong Dong & Ning Ge

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  1. M. Ge
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Correspondence to Birong Dong or Ning Ge.

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Conflict of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Ethical Standards: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of West China Hospital, Sichuan University.

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Ge, M., Zhang, Y., Zhao, W. et al. Prevalence and Its Associated Factors of Physical Frailty and Cognitive Impairment: Findings from the West China Health and Aging Trend Study (WCHAT). J Nutr Health Aging 24, 525–533 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-020-1363-y

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