Association of frailty with cognitive impairment in Mexican older adults from the open population

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundFrailty and mild cognitive impairment are highly prevalent and disabling conditions in the older adult population, which can coexist. Since fragility represents wear and tear of multiple systems that put the subject in a condition of physical, cognitive, and social vulnerability,MethodThis report contains information from an observational cohort design study, the inclusion criteria included adults older than 65 years or older at the beginning of follow‐up, who completed the baseline evaluations and three years of follow‐up, within the protocols of the GID 10 / 66. Data from 1,823 adults older than 65 years without dementia were analyzed in the initial evaluation. Frailty was evaluated by modified Fried criteria (excluding grip strength), the presence of 3 of the 4 remaining criteria was considered fragility. They were considered for the analysis of variables such as sex, age, education, marital status, occupation, diabetes, hypertension, depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment level in the initial evaluation. The incidence of cognitive impairment was determined by the presence of MCI or dementia at the follow‐up evaluation.ResultThe prevalence of frailty in the baseline evaluation was reported in 6.1%. Frailty was more prevalent in older ages. The occupation was also found to be associated with frailty, more prevalent in unemployed older adults. Comorbidities such as diabetes, a history of cerebral vascular disease, depression, and anxiety were found to be associated with frailty. The incidence of cognitive impairment in the total sample was 14.6%, in the group with frailty in the baseline evaluation it was 30.0%, which translates into a risk ratio of 2.2, which is reduced to 1.8 when adjusted for risk variables for incident cognitive impairment such as age, schooling, diabetes, depression, and anxiety.ConclusionIn older adults from the open population, frailty is associated with the incidence of cognitive impairment independently of some of the known risk factors for dementia and mild cognitive impairment.