Journal of the Indian Academy of Geriatrics (Jan 2018)
A Study of the Association between Dehydroepiandrosterone and Frailty in Elderly
Abstract
Objective: To determine the association between dehydroepiandrosterone and frailty in the elderly. Methods: In this cross-sectional analytical study, older people aged 65 and above attending the geriatric outpatient and inpatient services were screened for frailty using Fried's criteria. The frailty phenotype criteria include unintentional weight loss, slow walking speed, self-reported exhaustion, reduced grip strength and reduced physical activity. Subjects having 3 of the 5 criteria are termed as frail and having 1 or 2 criteria are termed as intermediate-frail and having none of the criteria is termed as non-frail, 33 frail, 34 intermediate-frail and 33 non-frail subjects were randomly selected from the screened subjects to participate in the study. Dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate ester (DHEAS) level in all the study subjects was measured. Results: Of the 100 study subjects, 53 were males, and 47 were females. The mean age of the study participants was 77.12 years. The frailty phenotype increased with advancing age. The mean DHEAS level was 49.55μg/dL We found an inverse relationship between the frailty categories and the DHEAS level. No gender interaction was observed in the association between frailty and DHEAS level. BMI ≥ 29 kg/m2 attenuated the association found between frailty and DHEAS level. Conclusion: In this study, we found an association between frailty and DHEAS level. The DHEAS level in the frail group was lower when compared with those of the non-frail group.
