Frailty and cognitive impairment—a review of the pathogenesis

Frailty is an age-related syndrome mainly characterized by a decreased physical reserves and the development of multi-system disorders, which damage the protective ability of organism to exterior and interior stressor of harmful stimuli, and the protective ability of organism to maintain homeostasis, finally to increase the susceptibility and vulnerability to stressor of harmful stimuli.One focus is to investigate the correlation between physical and cognitive functions in elderly people as the basis of exploration for the association between frailty and cognitive decline.Several epidemiological studies have reported an idea that frailty increases the risk of cognitive decline which interactively increases the risk of frailty.This suggests that cognition impairment interacts with frailty in the ageing process.This paper reviews the potential association between frailty and cognitive impairment on the basis of the evidence on neuropathology, hormonal dysregulation, nutrition condition, chronic inflammation, vascular disease risk, and psychological factor. Key words: Cognition; Dementia; Cognitive disorders; Frailty