Examining frailty and cardiovascular disease risk profile in middle-aged and older women

Abstract

Frailty assessment has been suggested to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk management. Frailty is characterized as having a lack of reserve for tolerating health stressors. Few studies have tried standardizing frailty criteria to the population being assessed or examined the association of CVD risk profile before the onset of CVD. The purpose of my thesis is to: (1) determine if standardized frailty models better discriminate CVD risk compared to the traditional approach; and, (2) determine if there are differences in CVD risk profile based on frailty status in a sample of middle-aged and older women. The standardized model improved CVD risk discrimination by 39.4% (p=0.016) and 20.5% (p = 0.017) in the two composite CVD risk scores assessed. Comparison of CVD risk profiles between frailty groups identified variables indicating higher CVD risk as frailty status increased. Frailty assessment have the potential to identify women with elevated CVD risk.