Researchers Warn of Increased Frailty in Heart Failure Patients

A group of researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research has identified a high prevalence of pre-frailty and frailty among patients with heart failure, including among the youngest.

The study, published in the scientific journal Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases shows that 57,4% of people suffering from heart failure have pre-frailty and 15,4% are already frail. The most common frailty criterion is exhaustion (90%), followed by low physical activity (81%).

Rui Valdiviesso, a CINTESIS researcher and first author of the study, draws attention to the fact that 8,1% of the patients suffering from heart failure and frailty – a typical geriatric condition– are under 65 years of age.

Frailty is an independent risk factor for mortality among patients with heart failure. It is characterized by the existence of three or more of the following criteria: muscle weakness, sluggishness, unintentional weight loss, decreased physical activity, and exhaustion. When a patient has one or two of these symptoms there is pre-frailty.

By analyzing the factors associated with frailty in these patients, the researchers concluded that muscle mass is the most important predictor of progression to this phenotype.

The team, therefore, believes that muscle mass should be taken into account when intervention plans are drawn up, in order to monitor patients, even the youngest, and possibly reverse frailty.

In all, the study included 136 participants followed at a Portuguese university hospital. Ages ranged from 24 to 81 years (59 years old on average), with women accounting for 33.8%.

Besides Rui Valdiviesso, the authors of this work are Luís Azevedo, Emília Moreira, Rosário Ataíde, Sónia Martins, Lia Fernandes and José Silva Cardoso (coordinator), all researchers from CINTESIS and from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, under the supervision of Nuno Borges, from CINTESIS/Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences of the University of Porto (FCNAUP).