Bidirectional relationship between social frailty and mild cognitive impairment in older patients with chronic heart...

Although both social frailty (SF) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are common comorbidities in older patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and they interact with each other, their relationship remains unclear.

The aim of this study was to explore the bidirectional relationship between SF and MCI in older patients with CHF.

Using the convenience sampling method, 288 older patients with CHF were recruited from China from November 2022 to April 2024 (T₁) and followed up 6-month (T₂) after their discharge from the hospital. Spearman correlation analysis and the cross-lagged panel analysis were used to test the proposed model, adjusted for potential confounding factors.

SF and MCI coexisted in 79 (27.4 %) patients at T₁ moment; however, 84 (29.2 %) patients had coexisting SF and MCI at T₂ moment. The results showed a good model fit: Chi-squared with degrees of freedom/ⅆf) = 1.820, goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.996, comparative fit index (CFI) =0.991, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.068. After controlling the factors influencing SF and MCI at the T1 moment, SF at the T₁ moment could predict MCI at the T₂ moment (effect: - 0.578，95 % CI: -0.694, -0.423); MCI at the T₁ moment could also predict SF at the T₂ moment (effect: - 0.646，95 % CI: -0.801, -0.493).

There was a significant bidirectional relationship between SF and MCI. Interventions targeting either SF or MCI may have mutually beneficial effects.