Mortality in relation to changes in a Healthy Aging Index : the health, aging, and body composition study

Background Baseline scores on a Healthy Aging Index (HAI), including five key physiologic domains, strongly predict health outcomes. This study aimed to characterize 9-year changes in a HAI and explore their relationship to subsequent mortality. Methods Data are from the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study of well-functioning adults aged 70–79 years. A HAI, which ranges from 0 to 10, was constructed at years 1 and 10 of the study including systolic blood pressure, forced expiratory volume, digit symbol substitution test, cystatin C, and fasting glucose. The relationships between the HAI at years 1 and 10 and the change between years and subsequent mortality until year 17 were estimated from Cox proportional hazards models. Results Two thousand two hundred sixty-four participants had complete data on a HAI at year 1, of these 1,122 had complete data at year 10. HAI scores tended to increase (i.e. get worse) over 9-year follow-up, from (mean [SD]) 4.3 (2.1) to 5.7 (2.1); mean within-person change 1.5 (1.6). After multivariable adjustment, HAI score was related to mortality from year 1 (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval] = 1.17 [1.13–1.21] per unit) and year 10 (1.20 [1.14–1.27] per unit). The change between years was also related to mortality (1.08 [1.02–1.15] per unit change). Conclusions HAI scores tended to increase with advancing age and stratified mortality rates among participants remaining at year 10. The HAI may prove useful to understand changes in health with aging