High Oxidative Stress Is Correlated with Frailty in Elderly Chinese

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relationship between oxidative stress and frailty in elderly people. DESIGN: Cross‐sectional study. SETTING: Community and hospital‐based outpatient clinic. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety participants aged 65 and older. MEASUREMENTS: Frailty status was determined according to the presence of weak handgrip strength, weight loss, slow walking speed, exhaustion, and low activity level and was classified as frail (≥3 criteria), prefrail (1 or 2 criteria), or robust (0 criteria). An oxidative stress marker (serum 8‐hydroxy‐2′‐deoxyguanosine, 8‐OHdG), metabolic markers (body mass index, waist–hip ratio, serum lipids, glucose, and albumin), an inflammatory marker (serum high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein, hs‐CRP), demographic information, and comorbidities (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, congestive heart failure, osteoarthritis, overweight or obesity, impaired fasting plasma glucose, renal insufficiency, and depression) were assessed. RESULTS: Of the 90 participants, 21 (23.3%) were frail, 56 (62.2%) were prefrail, and 13 (14.4%) were robust. Frail subjects had higher median (range) serum 8‐OHdG (2.5 ng/mL (1.5–6.2 ng/mL) vs 2.3 ng/mL (0.5–8.1 ng/mL) and 1.0 ng/mL (0.5–5.3 ng/mL)) and serum hs‐CRP (2.5 mg/L (0.3–32.1 mg/L) vs 1.8 mg/L (0.3–50.5 mg/L) and 1.7 mg/L (0.3–4.0 mg/L)) levels, lower mean±standard deviation serum albumin levels (4.1±0.4 g/dL vs 4.4±0.4 g/dL and 4.6±0.2 g/dL) and higher mean waist–hip ratios (0.96±0.11 vs 0.91±0.07 and 0.89±0.05)) than prefrail and robust subjects, respectively (P<.05 for all). In multivariable regression analysis, high serum 8‐OHdG level was still significantly associated with frailty after adjusting for age, smoking status, comorbidities, waist–hip ratio, serum albumin level, and hs‐CRP level. CONCLUSION: High oxidative stress, characterized by high serum 8‐OHdG level, was independently associated with frailty in the selected sample of elderly Chinese.