24-Year Study Tackles Inflammation/Frailty Link

Well, it seems that inflammation is linked to everything these days. Now a new study has found that middle aged adults experiencing chronic inflammation may be at increased risk of frailty, which as we all know, can result in a fall.

The study, led by Johns Hopkins Medicine investigators, included nearly 6,000 Americans followed for 24 years. A report on the study (“Midlife Systemic Inflammation Is Associated With Frailty in Later Life: The ARIC Study”) is published in the March 2018 issue of The Journals of Gerontology series a.

The researchers found that for each standard deviation of higher inflammation recorded in midlife, study participants experienced 39% higher odds of frailty—over the ensuing 24 years.

The prevalence of frailty in later life among people who had low levels of inflammation throughout midlife was 4-5%. That same number among adults with high levels of inflammation during midlife was 9%. The investigators emphasized that their study does not mean there is a cause and effect relationship between chronic inflammation and frailty.

Lead study author Keenan Walker, Ph.D., clinical neuropsychology postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told OTW, “Currently, there are no available biomarkers for predicting later frailty. Although inflammation may serve as a risk factor for frailty, how well inflammation predicts the presence or absence of subsequent frailty is still understudied.”

“The underlying causes of frailty are likely multiple, so a single biomarker may not be highly predictive. Additional studies which examine the biological changes that predate frailty will be necessary before specific biomarkers can be validated for widespread use.”

“Now that we have shown a link between systemic inflammation and later frailty, we hope to improve our understanding of how exactly chronic exposure to inflammation may act deleteriously on specific physiological systems (e.g., lean muscle, pulmonary, and cardiac) to promote the development of frailty. By gaining a better understanding of how inflammation acts on these systems at a molecular level, we will be better positioned to develop and test pharmacological interventions to treat frailty.”