Frailty, depression in older adults may together account for 17 % of dementia risk: Study

The findings, published in the journal General Psychiatry, suggests that while frailty and depression each increase dementia risk on their own, having both the conditions could make one more than three times as likely to develop dementia, compared with those in good health.

According to researchers from Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China, frailty and depression should be routinely assessed in older people, as improving their physical and mental health could help reduce dementia risk.

The previously published research has primarily focused on the individual associations between physical frailty or depression and dementia risk, they added.

Data from more than two lakh people from the US and UK, including the UK Biobank dataset, were analysed.

During a 13-year follow-up, 9,088 participants were diagnosed with dementia.

Frail participants were more likely to be female, have higher body weight, live with multiple long-term conditions, and lower educational attainment. They were also 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with dementia.

The participants with depression were had nearly a 60 per cent higher risk of being diagnosed with dementia.

However, “jointly, participants with both physical frailty and depression exhibited the highest dementia risk compared with those without physical frailty and depression,” the authors wrote.

“A significant additive interaction between physical frailty and depression was observed, with 17.1 per cent of dementia risk attributed to their interactive effects,” they said.

The results highlight the complex links between frailty, depression, and cognitive function, the team added.

The researchers said that lower levels of frailty may allow a partial offset of depression-related cognitive burden, while lower levels of depression may help mitigate burden of frailty.

However, once both the conditions exceed a threshold, the compensatory effects may be compromised, leading to a sharp increase in the risk of dementia, they said.