Cardiometabolic Risk Trajectory Among Older Americans: Findings From the Health and Retirement Study

Abstract

Background Cardiometabolic risk (CMR) is a key indicator of physiological decline with age; but age-related declines in a nationally representative older U.S. population have not been previously examined. Methods We examined the trajectory of cardiometabolic risk (CMR) over 8 years of aging, from 2006/2008 to 2014/2016, among 3,528 people over age 50 in the Health and Retirement Study. We used growth curve models to examine change in total CMR as well as in individual cardiometabolic biomarkers to understand how baseline differences and rates of change vary across sociodemographic characteristics, by smoking status, and medication use. Results Total CMR did not change among respondents who survived over 8 years. Despite significant differences in CMR across demographic and education groups at baseline, the pace of change with age did not differ by these characteristics. Among individual biomarkers, risk levels of diastolic blood pressure, resting heart rate, and total cholesterol decreased over 8 years while glycosylated hemoglobin, waist circumference, and pulse pressure increased over that time. Both the statistical significance levels and the magnitudes of the reduction over time with age in diastolic blood pressure, resting heart rate, and total cholesterol in models adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, gender, smoking, and education were reduced after controlling for blood pressure and cholesterol medication. Conclusions The relatively constant total CMR level over 8 years occurred because some indicators improved with age while some deteriorated in this period. Medication use contributed to the improvement in blood pressure, resting heart rate, and total cholesterol.

Geroscience and pathology: a new frontier in understanding age-related diseases

“…These factors, emanating from the central nervous system, endocrine organs, the immune system, adipose tissue, and even the gastrointestinal tract, play pivotal roles in orchestrating and harmonizing aging processes. An important implication of this concept is that conventional risk factors (including lifestyle [44][45][46][47][48][49][50] and environmental risk factors [51,52]) exacerbate age-related pathologies by intensifying fundamental molecular and cellular aging processes, both cell autonomous and non-cell autonomous.…”

Dried blood spot based biomarkers in the Health and Retirement Study: 2006 to 2016

“…The HRS longitudinal DBS collection allows researchers to examine change over time in health and causal pathways affecting it (Kumari & Benzeval, 2021;Weir, 2007;Zhao et al, 2023). It also allows the examination of disease development and progression and the interplay of health with social changes and environmental exposures (Tab ak et al, 2010;Wu et al, 2021), suggesting opportunities for intervention.…”

Risk factors and Outcome Analysis of Delayed Neurological Sequelae in elderly patients with carbon monoxide poisoning

“…However, there are only few studies focused on DNS after CO poisoning in elderly population. It is widely known that aging is an important cause of the occurrence and development of many diseases, and the elderly population are more likely to have multisystem physiological degradation, leading to a decrease in resistance to certain diseases, such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, etc [10]. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective study to analysize the characteristic of CO poisoning and the in uencing factors of DNS and LNS in elderly patients with CO poisoning.…”