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Published on: July 24, 2013
Association Between Frailty and Albuminuria in the Community-Dwelling Geriatric Population
Chih-Hsueh Lin1,2,3, Che-Yi Chou4,5,6, Tsai-Chung Li7
1School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Aim:
Elderly with frailty are more at risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality than the general population. Albuminuria is a risk factor for atherosclerosis, a major cause of frailty. We investigated the association between frailty and albuminuria in community-dwelling elderly.
Methods:
This was a cross-sectional study for analyzing 1347 participants aged at least 65 years in the north district of Taichung, Taiwan. We defined the frailty phenotype as at least three characteristics: weight loss, exhaustion, weakness, slow walking speed, and decreased physical activity. We collected random urine and measured all participants' albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR). We analyzed the association between frailty and ACR using logistic regression with adjustments for confoundings.
Results:
The average age of 1347 participants was 76 ± 7 years, and 649 (48.2%) were male. Two hundred and forty-two (18.7) participants were robust, 853 (63.3%) participants were pre-frail, and 242 (18%) were frail. One thousand sixty-four (79%) participants had an ACR < 30 mg/g; the highest ACR was 2825 mg/g. The odds ratio of ACR was 1.12 (95% confidence interval 1.05-1.25, p = 0.001) with adjustments for age, body mass index, estimated glomerular filtration rate, diabetes, liver function, and cholesterol.
Conclusion:
Frailty is associated with urinary albuminuria in community-dwelling elderly, and this association is independent of traditional and non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
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