Thread by @nick_krontiris

Using data from 3095 people living in Sweden, this one identified the most relevant predictors of 18-year mortality in individuals aged ≥60 years.

- Individuals’ social connections and civil status were identified as meaningful predictors of mortality, as well as socio-environmental characteristics such as living conditions, civil status, and leisure activities.

- Physical function also had a strong prognostic role, as the functional status domain, encompassing several measures of physical performance and dependency, was the only single domain that showed comparable predictive performance to chronological age.

These results were however limited to the prediction of short-term mortality.

"Dynamic changes in health and functioning in old age may be responsible for the reduced predictive power of physical function measures during longer follow-ups."

- Beyond sociodemographic characteristics, the variables found to be significantly associated with mortality in the multi-domain model include established risk factors such as:

- Systolic blood pressure and smoking but not dyslipidaemia, chronic diseases such as atrial fibrillation and diabetes but not ischemic heart disease...

...blood markers such as creatinine and haemoglobin but not C-reactive protein, and physical and cognitive function measures such as gait speed and global cognitive function, as assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination.

- The inclusion of chronological age in the model actually decreased the predictivity of some observable characteristics (i.e., chronic kidney disease, systolic blood pressure, being unpartnered, alkaline phosphatase, albumin, and hand grip strength).

This may suggest that chronological age harbours the prognostic information brought in by such features, while several other observable characteristics offered prognostic information that was independent of chronological age.

TL;DR:

Beyond chronological age: a multidimensional approach to survival prediction in older adults (open access)

doi.org/10.1093/gerona…

#aging #longevity #MetabolicSyndrome #exercise #muscle #strength #lift #GetStrong #cardio #hiit