The Association between Frailty Indicators and Blood-Based Biomarkers in Early-Old Community Dwellers of Thailand

Thailand has officially reached the status of an “aged society” and become the developing country with the 2nd largest proportion of senior citizens in Southeast Asia. A cross-sectional study of 526 early-old community dwellers was conducted for the Fried frailty phenotype assessment, This included five indicators: Weakness, slowness, physical activity, exhaustion, and weight loss. C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), insulin-like growth factor-1, and CD4+:CD8+ Ratio which serve as blood-based biomarkers of frailty. The prevalence of frailty and pre-frail in this population was found to be 15% and 69.6% respectively and was higher among women than men. Frail (n = 58) and non-frail (n = 60) participants were evaluated for the associations between the frail indicators and the blood-based biomarkers. Serum levels of IL-6 and CRP from frail group were significantly elevated when compared with the non-frail counterparts (p = 0.044 and 0.033, respectively), and were significantly associated with the frailty status with an Odd Ratio(IL-6) [OR] of 1.554-fold (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.229–1.966) and an OR(CRP) of 1.011-fold (95 CI, 1.006–1.016). Decreased hand-grip strength was the only frailty indicator that was significantly associated with both inflammatory biomarkers, (OR(IL-6) of 1.470-fold and OR(CRP) of 1.008-fold). Our study is the first to assess the frailty status among the early-old population in Thailand. These findings will encourage general practitioners to combine frailty indicators and serum biomarkers as early detection tools for at-risk older adults to achieve the goal of healthy aging.