AUTHOR=Pansini Antonella , Lombardi Angela , Morgante Maria , Frullone Salvatore , Marro Anna , Rizzo Mario , Martinelli Giuseppe , Boccalone Eugenio , De Luca Antonio , Santulli Gaetano , Mone Pasquale 

TITLE=Hyperglycemia and Physical Impairment in Frail Hypertensive Older Adults

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Endocrinology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2022.831556

DOI=10.3389/fendo.2022.831556

ISSN=1664-2392

ABSTRACT=BACKGROUND: Frailty is a multidimensional condition typical of elders that determines physical decline. Frail older adults have a high-risk of functional decline, hospitalization, and mortality. Hyperglycemia (HG) is frequently observed in frail older adults, and it represents an independent predictor of worst outcomes, with or without diabetes mellitus (DM). We aimed to study the impact of hyperglycemia on physical impairment in frailty.
METHODS: We studied consecutive older adults with frailty and hypertension at the ASL (local health authority of the Italian Ministry of Health) of Avellino, Italy, from March 2021 to September 2021. Exclusion criteria were: age< 65 years, no frailty, no hypertension, left ventricular ejection fraction <25%, previous myocardial infarction, previous primary percutaneous coronary intervention and/or coronary artery bypass grafting. All patients practiced blood samples for glycemia, HbA1c and creatinine. A physical frailty assessment was performed following the Fried Criteria; additionally, we performed a 5-meter gait speed (5mGS) test in all patients. 
RESULTS: 149 frail patients were enrolled in the study, of which 82 had normoglycemia (NG), 67 had HG. We observed a significantly slower 5mGS in the HG group compared to the NG group (0.52±0.1 vs. 0.69±0.06; p<0.001). We found a strong and significant correlation between 5mGS and glycemia (r: 0.833; p<0.001). We performed a multivariate analysis with 5mGS as a dependent variable in all patients, yielding a significant association for glycemia (p<0.001) and COPD (p: 0.043). 
CONCLUSIONS: HG drives physical impairment independently from DM.