Abstract
Abstract
Background
Systemic inflammation has been linked to diseases and frailty. However, little is known about the effect of systemic inflammation on frailty progression with a longitudinal study design.
Objectives
This study aimed to investigate the associations of two inflammation indicators, C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell (WBC), with frailty progression.
Methods
This study utilized data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2011–2018 (wave 1-wave 4). Frailty index (FI) was calculated using 40 items from wave 1 to wave 4 (range: 0 to 1). Two systemic inflammation biomarkers, CRP and WBC, were measured at baseline (wave 1) and logs transformed as continuous variables or grouped using quartiles. Linear mixed-effect models were used to analyze the associations of these two biomarkers with the progression of frailty with adjustment for potential confounding factors.
Results
The study enrolled 9111 middle-aged and older participants (52.7% females, mean age 58.8 ± 9.3 years). The median follow-up time was 7.0 years. In a fully adjusted model with further adjustment for baseline FI, higher CRP (β for the interaction with time = 0.239, 95% CI: 0.139 to 0.338) and WBC (β for the interaction with time = 0.425, 95% CI: 0.024 to 0.825) significantly accelerated the rate of increase in the FI during the follow-up period. The associations were more pronounced in younger people (< 60 years) than older people (≥60 years).
Conclusions
Higher CRP and WBC accelerated the progression of frailty, particularly in younger groups (< 60 years). The findings suggest the importance of systemic inflammation for the early identification of people at high risk of rapid progression of frailty.
Funder
the National Key Research and Development Program of China
the National Natural Science Foundation of China
the 2020 Milstein Medical Asian American Partnership Foundation Irma and Paul Milstein Program for Senior Health project award
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Cited by
20 articles.
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