Co-occurrence of physical frailty and cognitive decline & its interrelationship among hypertensive middle aged adults

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Reethu Elsa Baby
 

Little Flower Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, India

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

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Hypertension, a highly prevalent disease affecting 1 billion individuals worldwide is the leading cause of global disease burden and overall health loss. Chronic elevation of blood pressure is suspected as a major risk factor not only for cardiovascular morbidity, but also for cognitive impairment and physical frailty. Several recent studies have shown an association between physical frailty and cognitive decline among geriatric population. The study aimed at finding the cooccurrence of physical frailty and cognitive decline and its interrelationship among hypertensive middle aged adults. 80 hypertensive subjects who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Cognitive decline was assessed using MoCA and physical frailty using Fried’s Frailty Criteria. These subjects were further assessed and sub categorised based on age, gender, BMI, duration of hypertension, antihypertensive medication and comorbidities on to find the influence on physical frailty and cognitive decline. Among 80 subjects, 24 were found to be non frail, while, 56 were frail. 48 subjects had mild cognitive decline. When assessed based on age, subjects of age group 56-65years had more decline in cognition. Females showed a minor decline in cognitive function compared to males. Those with more than 5 years of hypertension showed greater cognitive decline than those with less than 5 years of hypertension. There is an increase in cognitive decline in subjects with BMI above normal range. The subjects without antihypertensive medication therapy and with comorbidities showed a greater decline in cognition. There was no significant influence of age, gender, BMI, duration of hypertension, antihypertensive medications and comorbidities on physical frailty. The study concluded that there is a co-occurrence and interrelationship between cognitive decline and physical frailty in hypertensive adults. There is a significant influence of age, gender, BMI, duration of hypertension, antihypertensive medications and comorbidities on cognitive decline, but not on physical frailty..

Biography

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Reethu Elsa Baby (PT), is an aspiring physiotherapist and academician with keen interest in the field of physiotherapy research. Currently, I currently work as an Assistant Professor in Physiotherapy in India and I have a teaching experience of more than 6 years in different subjects of physiotherapy. During my job period as assistant professor, I had been a part of various research projects of the institution and currently supervising and guiding undergraduate and post graduate research works in my college along with conducting research in the department. Currently I have completed 8 research works, out of which 6 are published in peer viewed journals.