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Depressive symptoms are associated with incident frailty in a Chinese population: the Rugao Longevity and Aging Study

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Abstract

Background and aims

This study aimed at investigating whether depression symptoms are associated with prevalent and incident physical frailty in Chinese older population.

Methods

We analyzed data of 1168 older Chinese adults aged 70 and above in the aging arm of the Rugao Longevity and Aging Study (RuLAS). Depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale ≥ 6) were assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale. Frailty was defined using Fried phenotype criteria at baseline and 3-year survey.

Results

At baseline, 8.9% of the participants had depression symptoms. The prevalence of pre-frailty and frailty were 34.5% and 5.9%, respectively. The percentages of depressive symptoms increase from robust (5.3%) to pre-frail (11.2%), and then to frail (31.9%) groups. After adjustments of multiple covariates, depressive symptoms were associated with both prevalent pre-frailty (OR = 1.75, 95% CI 1.08–2.84) and prevalent frailty (OR = 5.64, 95% CI 2.85–11.14) at baseline. At 3-year survey, 9.3% participants reported the development of frailty. After multiple adjustments, depressive symptoms were associated with a 2.79-fold (95% CI 1.09–7.10) increased risk of 3-year incident frailty.

Conclusion

Depressive symptoms are associated with prevalent and incident frailty in Chinese older population. Together with the observations of the European populations, depressive symptoms may be a candidate risk factor of frailty.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge all participants involved in the present study.

Funding

This work was financially supported by Grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC2000400, 2018YFC2002000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81571372, 81670465, 81600577), the Shanghai natural science Grant (16ZR1449400).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Na Zhang and Guo-Ping Shi contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering and MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Science and Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Na Zhang, Yu-Chen Wang, Shun Yao & Xiao-Feng Wang

  2. National Clinical Research Center for Aging and Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Na Zhang, Yu-Chen Wang, Shun Yao & Xiao-Feng Wang

  3. Rugao People’s Hospital, Rugao, Jiangsu, China

    Guo-Ping Shi, Yong Wang, Xue-Feng Chu, Zheng-Dong Wang, Jian-Ming Shi, Jiang-Hong Guo & Yin-Sheng Zhu

  4. Key Laboratory of Arrhythmias of the Ministry of Education of China, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Xiao-Yan Jiang

Authors
  1. Na Zhang
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  2. Guo-Ping Shi
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  3. Yong Wang
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  4. Xue-Feng Chu
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  5. Zheng-Dong Wang
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  6. Jian-Ming Shi
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  7. Jiang-Hong Guo
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  8. Yu-Chen Wang
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  9. Shun Yao
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  10. Xiao-Yan Jiang
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  11. Yin-Sheng Zhu
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  12. Xiao-Feng Wang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yin-Sheng Zhu or Xiao-Feng Wang.

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Conflict of interest

The author declares that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The Human Ethics Committee of the School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, approved the study.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to the study.

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Zhang, N., Shi, GP., Wang, Y. et al. Depressive symptoms are associated with incident frailty in a Chinese population: the Rugao Longevity and Aging Study. Aging Clin Exp Res 32, 2297–2302 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-019-01409-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-019-01409-x

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