Pharmacy Daily | Obesity adds to frailty

CARRYING far too much weight, including a midriff bulge, from mid-life onwards, is linked to a heightened risk of physical frailty in older age, research published in the journal BMJ Open has found.

Frailty is often wrongly perceived as a purely wasting disorder, said the researchers, who emphasised the importance of keeping trim throughout adulthood to help minimise the risk.

Mounting evidence suggests that obese older adults may be at increased risk because obesity aggravates the age-related decline in muscle strength, aerobic capacity, and physical function.

But few studies have tracked weight changes and frailty risk over the long term.

The researchers, therefore, drew on participants in the population-based Troms Study to find out whether general body mass index (BMI) and abdominal obesity separately and jointly, might affect the risk of pre-frailty/frailty.

Those who were obese in 1994, assessed by BMI alone, were nearly 2.5 times more likely to be pre-frail/frail at the end of the monitoring period than those with a normal BMI.

Similarly, those with a moderately-high or high-waist circumference to start off with, were, respectively, 57% and twice as likely, to be pre-frail/frail than those with a normal waistline.

Those who started off with a normal BMI but moderately-high waist circumference, or who were overweight but had a normal waistline, weren't significantly more likely to be pre-frail/frail at the end of the monitoring period.

But those who were both obese and who had a moderately-high waist circumference at the start of the monitoring period were.

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