Association of cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity with cardiometabolic multimorbidity among middle-aged and older adults: A longitudinal study

Cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity are deemed to be important targets for disease prevention. However, a possible cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CMM) link with cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity with CMM in the middle-aged and older people. The sample comprised 11,503 participants aged 45 and over from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011. Cognitive frailty was defined as the coexisting cognitive impairment and physical frailty. Abdominal obesity was assessed using waist circumference. CMM was defined as the presence of two or more cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs), including diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. A total of 9177 participants without CMM recruited from CHARLS 2011 and were followed up in 2018. Compared with 0 CMD, coexisting cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity was associated with the risk of 1 CMD (OR: 1.734, 95 % CI: 1.133–2.655), and ≥ 2 CMDs (OR: 7.218, 95%CI: 3.216–16.198). Longitudinal analysis showed that individuals with both cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity (HR: 2.162, 95%CI: 1.032–4.531) were more likely to have new onset CMM than cognitive frailty alone peers (HR: 1.667, 95 % CI: 0.721–3.853). Among the participants with first CMD, the likelihood of CMM was substantially higher in the co-existence of cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity (HR: 3.073, 95%CI: 1.254–7.527) than in the abdominal obesity alone (HR: 1.708, 95%CI: 1.201–2.427). Cognitive frailty alone was not significantly associated with CMM. Cognitive frailty is not independently associated with the risk of CMM, but cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity together has a greater risk of CMM. •Coexisting cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity were positively associated with incident CMM.•Cognitive frailty alone was not significantly associated with CMM.•Coexisting cognitive frailty and abdominal obesity elevated risk of progression from first CMDs to CMM.