Global Performance of Executive Function Is Predictor of Risk of Frailty and Disability in Older Adults

The executive function is a complex set of skills affected during the aging process and translate into subclinical cerebrovascular disease. Postural instability or motor slowness are some clinical manifestations, being consubstantial with the frailty phenotype, genuine expression of aging. Executive dysfunction is also considered a predictor of adverse health events in the elderly.

To study whether the executive dysfunction can be used as an early marker for frailty and the viability of use as a predictor of mortality, hospitalization and/or disability in a Mediterranean population.

A population-based cohort study using data from the Toledo Study for Healthy Aging (TSHA).

1690 Spanish elders aged ≥65 years underwent a neuropsychological evaluation in order to measure executive function. To assess whether the accumulation of dysfunctions (in severity and amplitude) could increase the predictive value of adverse health events in relation to each dimension separately an executive dysfunction cumulative index was constructed. Cox proportional hazards model was used to examine mortality and hospitalization over 5.02 and 3.1 years of follow-up, respectively.

Executive dysfunction is a powerful predictor of mortality, frailty and disability. Cumulative differences in executive function are associated with high risk of frailty and disability, thus, for each one point increment in the executive function index, the risk of death increased by 7 %, frailty by 13% and disability by 11% (P<0.05). Moreover, the executive impairment exhibits a strong positive tendency with age, comorbidity and mortality.

Cumulative differences in four executive dimensions widely used in clinical practice improves the ability to predict frailty and disability compared to each dimension separately.