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Inflammation, coagulation and risk of locomotor disability in elderly women: findings from the British Women’s Heart and Health Study

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Abstract

This study investigated associations between chronic inflammation and coagulation and incident locomotor disability using prospective data from the British Women’s Heart and Health Study. Locomotor disability was assessed using self-reported questionnaires in 1999/2000, and 3 and 7 years later. Scores for inflammation and coagulation were obtained from summation of quartile categories of all available biomarkers from blood samples taken at baseline. 534 women developed locomotor disability after 3 years, 260 women after 7 years, while 871 women remained free of locomotor disability over the whole study period. After adjustment for demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors and health conditions, we found associations between inflammation and incident locomotor disability after three (OR per unit increase in score = 1.08, 95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.13) and 7 years (OR = 1.10, 95 % CI: 1.03, 1.18) and between coagulation and incident locomotor disability after 3 (OR = 1.06, 95 % CI: 0.98, 1.14) and 7 years (OR = 1.09, 95 % CI: 1.00, 1.18). This corresponds to ORs between 1.8 and 2.4 comparing women with highest to lowest inflammation or coagulation scores. These results support the role of inflammation and coagulation in the development of locomotor disability in elderly women irrespective of their lifestyle factors and underlying age-related chronic diseases.

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Abbreviations

aPC:

Activated protein C

aPTT:

Activated partial thromboplastin time

CI:

Confidence interval

CRP:

C-reactive protein

IL-6:

Interleukin-6

IQR:

Interquartile range

OR:

Odds ratio

TNFα:

Tumor necrosis factor alpha

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development (Grant FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF-273673 to E.N.); the Department of Health Policy Research Program (Grant 009/0049); and the British Heart Foundation (Grant EPNCCD08). The funders had no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the report or in the decision to submit the paper for publication. We thank to all study participants, the general practitioners and their staff who have supported data collection since the study inception, and the Laboratory based at Glasgow University for processing the assays.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interests.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

    Eveline Nüesch, Caroline E. Dale, Antoinette Amuzu, George B. Ploubidis, Shah Ebrahim & Juan P. Casas

  2. Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

    Hannah Kuper

  3. Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, London, UK

    Ann Bowling

  4. Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Gordon Lowe & Ann Rumley

  5. South Asia Network for Chronic Disease, Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India

    Shah Ebrahim

  6. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK

    Juan P. Casas

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  1. Eveline Nüesch
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  2. Caroline E. Dale
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  3. Antoinette Amuzu
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  7. Gordon Lowe
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  8. Ann Rumley
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  9. Shah Ebrahim
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  10. Juan P. Casas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eveline Nüesch.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 2 and 3.

Table 2 Inter-item correlation coefficients for the 6 questions used to define locomotor disability at baseline/after 3 years/after 7 years
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Table 3 Associations between incident locomotor disability and individual inflammation and coagulation markers in 1,665 women
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Nüesch, E., Dale, C.E., Amuzu, A. et al. Inflammation, coagulation and risk of locomotor disability in elderly women: findings from the British Women’s Heart and Health Study. Eur J Epidemiol 27, 633–645 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-012-9706-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-012-9706-6

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