Takeaway
- Frailty, as measured by the combination of slow gait speed, low chair-stand time and difficulty with balance, was associated with an increased risk of developing heart failure (HF).
- Frailty as defined by the Fried index demonstrated a weaker association with HF risk.
- There was no association between the frailty, as measured by the Gill index and HF risk.
Why this matters
- Findings suggest that interventions to prevent or improve frailty may help to reduce the subsequent development of HF.
Study design
- The British Regional Heart Study (BRHS) included 1445 older men with frailty data and without prevalent HF.
- Association between 3 different frailty scores (Fried index, Gill index and Health Ageing and Body Composition) and incident HF was evaluated.
- Funding: British Heart Foundation.
Key results
- During a mean follow-up of 6.1 years, 99 men developed HF.
- In the age-adjusted model, men with the highest vs lowest novel frail score had an increased risk of HF (adjusted HR [aHR], 2.77; 95% CI, 1.25-6.15; P=.01).
- The risk persisted after adjustment for (aHR; 95% CI):
- prevalent myocardial infarction (MI) and body mass index (BMI; 2.55; 1.14-5.72; P=.02);
- additional clinical risk factors (3.06; 1.31-7.14; P=.01); and
- log interleukin-6 (3.14; 1.35-7.31; P=.008).
- The risk of HF increased but was attenuated after excluding HF events within 2 years of baseline (aHR, 2.05; 95% CI, 0.61-6.92; P=.25).
- Frailty score measured by Fried index showed a non-significant association with HF (aHR, 1.92; 95% CI, 0.99-3.73; P=.05), which was further attenuated after adjustment for prevalent MI and BMI (aHR, 1.60; 95% CI, 0.81-3.15; P=.18).
- After adjustment for prevalent MI and BMI, the frailty score measured by Gill index was weakly associated with HF risk (aHR, 1.31; 95% CI, 0.47-3.70; P=.61).
Limitations
- Risk of residual confounding.
This clinical summary originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
