Hypertension and frailty in older adults

Abstract

The association between hypertension and frailty syndrome in older adults remains unclear. There is scarce information about the prevalence of hypertension among frail elderly patients or on its relationship with frailty. Up to one quarter of frail elderly patients present without comorbidity or disability, yet frailty is a leading cause of death. The knowledge and better control of frailty risk factors could influence prognosis. The present study evaluated: (1) the prevalence of hypertension in robust, prefrail, and frail elderly; and (2) factors that might be associated with frailty including hypertension. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 619 older adults at a universitybased outpatient center. Study protocol included sociodemographic data, measures of blood pressure and body mass index, frailty screening according to the internationally validated FRAIL (fatigue, resistance, ambulation, illnesses, and loss of weight) scale, number of comorbidities, drug use assessment, physical activity, cognitive status, and activities of daily living. Ordinal logistic regression was used to evaluate factors associated with frailty. Prevalence of hypertension and frailty was 67.3% and 14.8%, respectively, in the total sample. Hypertension was more prevalent in the prefrail (72.5%) and frail (83%) groups than among controls (51.7%). Hypertension, physical activity, number of prescribed drugs, and cognitive performance were significantly associated with frailty status. Hypertension presented an odds ratio of 1.77 towards frailty (95% confidence interval, 1.21-2.60; P = .002). Hypertension was more prevalent in frail elderly patients and was significantly associated with frailty. Intensive control of hypertension could influence the trajectory of frailty, and this hypothesis should be explored in future prospective clinical trials.

Fragilidade e doença de Parkinson

“…Verificamos relação significativa entre o aumento da idade e a incidência de fragilidade (tabela 4, p de 0,038) e uma relação negativa entre os anos de escolaridade e o aparecimento de fragilidade (tabela 4, p de 0,002), o que é intuitivo se considerarmos condições precárias de saúde, educação e idade cronológica avançada como fatores de significativa importância para o aparecimento da SF, o que é comprovado por diversos trabalhos (Mitnitski et al, 2002;Woo et al, 2012;Bouillon et al, 2013;Neri et al, 2013;Buchman et al, 2014;Cesari et al, 2016a,b (Aprahamian et al, 2017a;Aprahamian et al, 2018b).…”

Blood pressure management in older people: balancing the risks

“…Hypertension was more prevalent in the frail (83%) and prefrail (72.5%) groups than among controls (51.7%). Hypertension, physical activity, the number of prescribed drugs and cognitive performance were significantly associated with frailty status 15. A study from South Korea16 analysed data of 4352 adults aged  ≥65 years, among them 62.0% had hypertension and 21.3% had prehypertension.…”

“…Hypertension prevalence was higher in frail elderly (67.8%) than in prefrail (60.8%) or robust elderly (49.2%). It has been supposed that intensive control of hypertension could influence the trajectory of frailty,15 a hypothesis that needs more substantiation 15…”

Arterial hypertension as a factor in the choice of conflict resolution strategies by the older persons

“…According to medical observations, it is revealed that 67% of elderly people who are over 60 years old have this diagnosis in the US. Moreover, the percentage of people suffering from hypertension increases significantly with the age of the patients [3]. It was also found that hypertension is more common among older females than among older males [4].…”