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The Relationship between Physical Frailty and Mild Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly: A Systematic Review

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  • Neurosciences of Frailty
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Abstract

Introduction

Physical frailty (PF) appears to be associated with low cognitive performance and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This review evaluated and synthesized the evidence of studies investigating the association between PF and MCI, the prevalence of both conditions and the rate of conversion of healthy older adult to one of them during the follow-up.

Methods

A systematic review was performed according to the PRISMA recommendations in the Pubmed, SciELO and LILACS databases. Five studies were eligible according to inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results

Regarding the study design, cross-sectional studies prevailed. Most studies showed a positive association between PF and MCI. Moreover, PF seems to predict a worse cognitive trajectory among participants with MCI and it is associated to a higher risk of developing MCI.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest a significant association between PF and MCI. Further longitudinal studies are needed to better explore causality.

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Funding

Funding: Prof. Aprahamian receives National public grant level 2 from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications, Brazil).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department and Institute of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Marcus Kiiti Borges & A. Silva Santos Siqueira

  2. Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos Centro de Ciencias Biologicas e da Saude, São Carlos, Brazil

    N. Oiring de Castro Cezar

  3. Universidade de São Paulo, Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades, São Paulo, Brazil

    M. Yassuda

  4. Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedadale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    M. Cesari

  5. Geriatrics & Psychiatry division, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of Jundiaí, Jundiaí, Brazil

    I. Aprahamian

  6. Universidade de Sao Paulo Faculdade de Medicina, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Marcus Kiiti Borges

Authors
  1. Marcus Kiiti Borges
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  2. N. Oiring de Castro Cezar
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  3. A. Silva Santos Siqueira
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  4. M. Yassuda
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  5. M. Cesari
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  6. I. Aprahamian
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcus Kiiti Borges.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical standard: We agree with standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the Authors, the Editor-in-Chief, the Peer-Reviewers and the Publisher. The research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, and the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

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Kiiti Borges, M., Oiring de Castro Cezar, N., Silva Santos Siqueira, A. et al. The Relationship between Physical Frailty and Mild Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly: A Systematic Review. J Frailty Aging 8, 192–197 (2019). https://doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2019.29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2019.29

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