Impact of frailty biomarkers on the accumulation of age-related health deficits

As people grow old, they are more likely to develop health problems. However, not everyone ages in the same way. Some people will be healthier in their later years, while others will develop many health issues. One way to determine a person's overall health is to measure their frailty level. Frailer people are more likely to have worse health outcomes. This means that finding ways to manage or even prevent frailty will be important for the health and well-being of aging Canadians. The problems of frailty begin before noticeable health issues occur. We can learn about frailty by using tests which show how well the body is functioning, known as biomarkers. Biomarkers are commonly used to diagnose health problems. Some single biomarkers work well in this way but may not increase our understanding of frailty. We have developed a method to measure a person's level of frailty by combining individual tests into one biomarker by counting the number of abnormal test results. People with more abnormalities measured with our frailty biomarker are at a greater risk of dying prematurely. However, it is unknown if our frailty biomarker can identify an individual's risk for developing health problems related to older age such as chronic diseases. We want to address this knowledge gap by using information collected from a large study of middle-aged to older Canadians called the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, or CLSA. The CLSA collects people's health, biological, lifestyle, social, and psychological information at multiple times which allow us to follow people's change in frailty. Previous research shows that a person's level of frailty can depend on many reasons, such as social factors and lifestyle behaviors. Therefore, we will identify if these factors relate to a person's risk of developing health problems based on their frailty biomarkers. This study could help delay health problems of old age and to deliver timely care to individuals.