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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1565682
This article is part of the Research Topic Metabolic Pathways to Multiple Long-term Conditions (Multimorbidity): Focusing on Cardio-metabolic Multimorbidity (CMM) View all 6 articles
Cardiometabolic multimorbidity and frailty in middle-aged and older adults: a cross-nationally harmonised study
Provisionally accepted- West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Background: Cardiometabolic diseases are prevalent among ageing populations and have a close association with frailty. However, the cumulative impact multiple cardiometabolic diseases have on frailty remains underexplored. Methods: This study used data from four international cohorts -HRS, CHARLS, ELSA and SHAREto examine the correlation between frailty and cardiometabolic diseases (CMD). The frailty index was used for assessing frailty and statistical analyses were performed as a means of analysing the correlation between the number of cardiometabolic conditions and frailty severity. Linear regression models were employed to evaluate the associations between CMD and frailty severity.The study found that as the number of cardiometabolic diseases increased, the frailty index rose significantly (one disease, β=7.80 [95% CI: 7.70 to 7.90] p<0.05; two diseases, β=17.92 [95% CI: 17.76 to 18.08] p<0.05; three diseases, β=28.79 [95% CI: 28.41 to 29.17] p<0.05). Stroke was found to have the most pronounced impact on frailty (β= 12.34 [95%CI 12.20 to 12.48] p<0.05) and the coexistence of multiple conditions served to amplify the symptoms of frailty.This study highlights the compounded impact multiple cardiometabolic diseases have on frailty and also emphasises the necessity for early intervention.
Keywords: Multicohort Cardiometabolic diseases, Frailty Index, diabetes, Heart disease, Stroke, Middle-aged and older people
Received: 23 Jan 2025; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Wang and Yi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ke Yi, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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