Associations of frailty with cardiovascular disease and life expectancy: A prospective cohort study

Objective: Evidence is limited regarding the impact of frailty phenotype with cardiovascular disease (CVD) among younger people and life expectancy.

Methods: The present study included 449971 participants who were enrolled between 2006 and 2010. We used separate cox proportional hazard models stratified by sex to investigate the association of frailty status and each fraity phenotype with CVD events. Using flexible parametric survival models with age as the time scale, we calculated the number of years of life expectancy lost due to frailty status and frailty phenotypes.

Results: The present analysis included 449,971 (38-73 years old) participants, including 199,617 (44.36%) men in the UK Biobank Study. Both frailty and pre-frailty status significantly were associated with an increase of the CVD incidence and all-cause mortality across a wider age range. For individuals with a pre-frailty status, life expectancy at age 45 had a significant reduction of 2.05 (95% CI, 1.75-2.34) years in men and 1.63 (95% CI, 1.34-1.93) years in women; life expectancy at age 65 had a significant reduction of 1.75 (95% CI, 1.49-2.00) years in men and 1.44 (95% CI, 1.18-1.70) years in women.

Conclusions: In this prospective cohort study, frailty was associated with higher risks of CVD incidence and all-cause mortality across a wider age range, and led to a reduction in life expectancy. These findings highlight the importance of not only considering frailty modification in older people but also extending preventive efforts to younger people.