Association of physical frailty with cardiac conduction disorder events in the UK Biobank
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Cardiology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine
- 2Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Intervention and Precision Medicine
- 3Engineering Research Center for Cardiovascular Innovative Devices of Zhejiang Province
- 4MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University
Abstract
Background: Practical markers for identifying individuals at risk of cardiac conduction disorders (CCDs) before overt disease are limited. Physical frailty reflects reduced physiological reserve and may capture vulnerability beyond chronological age and individual cardiometabolic factors. Herein, we investigated the association of physical frailty with incident CCD in the UK Biobank cohort.
Methods: We included 423,162 participants with data for a modified Fried frailty phenotype and linked health-record follow-up after excluding those with cardiovascular disease, CCDs, or pacemaker implantation at baseline. Participants were classified as non-frail, prefrail, or frail. The primary outcome was incident CCD, and the secondary outcomes were severe conduction block and left bundle branch or fascicular block. Cox proportional hazards models estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results: Overall, 58.2% of participants were non-frail, 38.5% were prefrail, and 3.3% were frail; 18,067 incident CCD events occurred during the follow-up. Compared with participants who were non-frail, participants who were prefrail and frail were at higher risks of CCDs after multivariable adjustment [HR, 1.23 (95% CI, 1.19–1.27) and HR, 1.71 (95% CI, 1.60–1.83), respectively; P for trend <0.01]. The corresponding HRs were 1.13 (95% CI, 1.09–1.18) and 1.44 (95% CI, 1.32–1.59) for severe conduction block and were 1.24 (95% CI, 1.17–1.32) and 1.61 (95% CI, 1.43–1.81) for left bundle branch or fascicular block.
Conclusions: Physical frailty was associated with graded increases in incident CCD and related conduction outcomes, with excess risk evident at the prefrailty stage. Frailty assessment may help identify individuals with increased susceptibility, although the observational design does not establish causality or demonstrate that modifying frailty would reduce risk.
Related
- Association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and physical frailty with cardiovascular health in US adults: A cross-sectional study.
- Does Relationship Status Affect the Association Between Comorbidity, Physical Activity and Frailty in Older People? Findings from the Southampton Longitudinal Study of Ageing (SaLSA).
- Frailty mediates the association between sleep duration and physical, psychological, and cognitive multimorbidity in Chinese middle-aged and older adults
- Association of Lower-Limb Asymmetry with Falls, Physical Performance and Frailty in Older Adults: A Systematic Review
- Association of Frailty Status with Semi-Targeted Metabolomics and Untargeted Proteomics in Older Adults Referred for Physical Therapy in a Geriatric Clinic
BibTeX
@article{tang2026association,
title = {{Association of physical frailty with cardiac conduction disorder events in the UK Biobank}},
author = {Qian Tang and Jingting Lyv and Chengfeng Li and Meihui Wang and Guosheng Fu and Yao Wang and Lu Yu},
journal = {Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fcvm.2026.1967667},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2026.1967667/full},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Association of physical frailty with cardiac conduction disorder events in the UK Biobank
AU - Qian Tang
AU - Jingting Lyv
AU - Chengfeng Li
AU - Meihui Wang
AU - Guosheng Fu
AU - Yao Wang
AU - Lu Yu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
JO - Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine
DO - 10.3389/fcvm.2026.1967667
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2026.1967667/full
AB - Background: Practical markers for identifying individuals at risk of cardiac conduction disorders (CCDs) before overt disease are limited. Physical frailty reflects reduced physiological reserve and may capture vulnerability beyond chronological age and individual cardiometabolic factors. Herein, we investigated the association of physical frailty with incident CCD in the UK Biobank cohort. Methods: We included 423,162 participants with data for a modified Fried frailty phenotype and linked health-record follow-up after excluding those with cardiovascular disease, CCDs, or pacemaker implantation at baseline. Participants were classified as non-frail, prefrail, or frail. The primary outcome was incident CCD, and the secondary outcomes were severe conduction block and left bundle branch or fascicular block. Cox proportional hazards models estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Overall, 58.2% of participants were non-frail, 38.5% were prefrail, and 3.3% were frail; 18,067 incident CCD events occurred during the follow-up. Compared with participants who were non-frail, participants who were prefrail and frail were at higher risks of CCDs after multivariable adjustment [HR, 1.23 (95% CI, 1.19–1.27) and HR, 1.71 (95% CI, 1.60–1.83), respectively; P for trend <0.01]. The corresponding HRs were 1.13 (95% CI, 1.09–1.18) and 1.44 (95% CI, 1.32–1.59) for severe conduction block and were 1.24 (95% CI, 1.17–1.32) and 1.61 (95% CI, 1.43–1.81) for left bundle branch or fascicular block. Conclusions: Physical frailty was associated with graded increases in incident CCD and related conduction outcomes, with excess risk evident at the prefrailty stage. Frailty assessment may help identify individuals with increased susceptibility, although the observational design does not establish causality or demonstrate that modifying frailty would reduce risk.
SN - 2297-055X
ER -