Circadian disturbances and frailty risk in older adults

Ruixue Cai; Lei Gao; Chenlu Gao; Lei Yu; Xi Zheng; David A Bennett; Aron S Buchman; Kun Hu; Peng Li

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-42727-z

Circadian disturbances and frailty risk in older adults

Nat Commun. 2023 Nov 16;14(1):7219. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42727-z.

Authors

Ruixue Cai^{1

2}, Lei Gao^{3

4

5}, Chenlu Gao^{3

4

5}, Lei Yu⁶, Xi Zheng³, David A Bennett⁶, Aron S Buchman⁶, Kun Hu^{3

4

5}, Peng Li^{7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Medical Biodynamics Program, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. [email protected].
² School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210000, China. [email protected].
³ Medical Biodynamics Program, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁴ Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁵ Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
⁶ Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA.
⁷ Medical Biodynamics Program, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. [email protected].
⁸ Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. [email protected].
⁹ Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, USA. [email protected].

Abstract

Frailty is characterized by diminished resilience to stressor events. It is associated with adverse future health outcomes and impedes healthy aging. The circadian system orchestrates ~24-h rhythms in bodily functions in synchrony with the day-night cycle, and disturbed circadian regulation plays an important role in many age-related health consequences. We investigated prospective associations of circadian disturbances with incident frailty in over 1000 older adults who had been followed annually for up to 16 years. We found that decreased rhythm strength, reduced stability, or increased variation were associated with a higher risk of incident frailty and faster progress of frailty over time. Perturbed circadian rest-activity rhythms may be an early sign or risk factor for frailty in older adults.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Circadian Rhythm / physiology
Frailty*
Humans
Rest
Risk Factors

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding