Grant: Summer Program in Aging

Thirty percent of Canadians are 55 years of age or older, and are living longer than ever. Health declines with age; however, the declines are not experienced uniformly between individuals; rather, some people are more vulnerable to stressors and experience more rapid reductions that lead to poor health, which is a condition called frailty. Increases in frailty predict poor health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD).The standard approach for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk screening in Canada is the Framingham Risk Score (FRS). However, in an eight year follow up study of older adults, the FRS poorly discriminated between those who had onset CVD and those who did not, and this absolute risk was specifically underestimated in women (51%) versus men (8%). A suggested method of improving CVD risk assessment is through the addition of frailty biomarkers. In fact, there is an emerging recognition that metabolites in our blood can be analyzed to detect the early development of frailty-related chronic conditions. However, no prior studies have determined if adding specific metabolites to an established CVD risk score improves its sensitivity/specificity. I will address this knowledge gap. Study 1 will measure metabolites in blood samples collected from the 985 women (age 55 and older) who participated in the Assessment of Large and Small Artery Elasticity for the Early Detection of Cardiovascular Disease trial (NCT02863211) for the purpose of identifying metabolites that are associated with CVD risk and frailty. A new CVD risk assessment model will then be created that includes the candidate metabolites. Study 2 will then determine if the new CVD risk model better predicts CVD outcomes than the traditional FRS in a different cohort of 1000 females who are 55 years of age or older and participating in the WARM Hearts trial (NCT03938155). My data will support the development of more precise early diagnostic tools to assess CVD risk in older adults.