Background: Frailty is a significant concern for older adults and can increase after a major health event. This study (a) examined the risk of incident frailty following a CVD event among community-dwelling older people aged ≥ 65 years and (b) explored whether sociodemographic factors, polypharmacy, and pre-event frailty influence their risk of developing frailty following a CVD event.

Methods: This study included a cohort of 738 participants (38.5% women) from the ASPREE study who were not classified as frail prior to their CVD event. Frailty was measured annually using the 64-item deficit-accumulation frailty index (FI).

Results: Over an average of 2.6 years after a CVD event, 333 individuals had incident frailty. In logistic regression models, increased chronological age, being a woman, and having polypharmacy were associated with 4% to 83% increased odds of developing frailty following a CVD event. Individuals with CVD residing in the inner regional area had about 50% higher odds of having frailty than those living in cities. This association was more evident among stroke survivors, with both inner regional (adjusted-OR, 2.13) and outer regional/remote residents (adjusted-OR, 2.37) having greater odds of frailty. Individuals who were classified as pre-frail before their CVD event, had notably higher odds of progressing to frailty post CVD (adjusted-OR, 3.41).

Conclusion: Our community-based study provides robust evidence that women, older individuals who were pre-frail, polypharmacy, or living in regional/remote areas have a markedly greater odds of developing frailty following a CVD event.

Keywords: cardiovascular disease; community-dwelling older people; frailty risk; polypharmacy; sociodemographic.

Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.

背景：

脆弱性是老年人的重要问题，重大健康事件后可能会增加。本研究（a）考察了社区居住的65岁及以上老年人在心血管疾病(CVD)事件后的脆弱性发生风险；（b）探讨社会人口学因素、多重用药和事件前的脆弱性是否会影响他们在CVD事件后发展为脆弱的风险。

方法：

该研究纳入了来自ASPREE研究的738名参与者（女性占38.5%），这些人在他们的CVD事件之前未被归类为脆弱。使用包含64项累积缺陷指数(FI)每年测量脆弱性。

结果：

在平均2.6年的随访期内，有333名个体发生了新的脆弱性。逻辑回归模型显示，年龄增长、性别（女性）和多重用药与CVD事件后发展为脆弱性的风险增加4%到83%有关。居住在内地区域的CVD患者比城市居民发生脆弱性的几率高出约50%，这种关联在中风幸存者中更为明显，无论是内地区域还是外地区/偏远地区的居民都有更大的脆弱性几率（校正后的OR分别为2.13和2.37）。在CVD事件前被分类为亚脆弱状态的个体，在经历CVD后进展到脆弱性的风险显著增加（校正后的OR为3.41）。

结论：

我们的社区研究提供了强有力的证据，表明女性、老年人群中的亚脆弱人群体、多重用药者或居住在地区/偏远地区的个体在经历心血管疾病事件后发展成脆弱的风险明显更高。

关键词：

心血管疾病；社区居住的老年人；脆弱性风险；多重用药；社会人口学因素。

版权所有 © 2025，由Elsevier Inc.出版。