SynthesisFrontiers in neurology
Frailty status and the risk of dementia, Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis of observational studies.
Synthesis in Frontiers in neurology. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Traumatic Brain Injury and the Road to Alzheimer's Disease.Biomedicines · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Frailty and dementia are critical geriatric syndromes that pose a substantial global public health burden. While the association between frailty and increased dementia risk is widely recognized, the magnitude of this association, its consistency across populations, and the influence of frailty subtypes remain inadequately synthesized and quantified. Objective: To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to precisely estimate the association between frailty and the risk of incident all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to explore sources of heterogeneity through comprehensive subgroup analyses. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for cohort studies published from inception to March 8, 2025. Data from eligible studies were pooled using random-effects models to calculate summary odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Pre-specified subgroup analyses were performed based on geographic region, study design, and frailty subtype. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I Results: Thirteen cohort studies comprising 835,992 participants were included. The meta-analysis showed that frailty was associated with significantly higher odds of all-cause dementia (pooled OR = 1.76, 95% CI: 1.48-2.10). For Alzheimer's disease, the pooled estimate suggested increased odds but did not reach statistical significance (OR = 1.91, 95% CI: 0.86-4.20), and the evidence was limited by the small number of contributing studies (k = 4) and substantial heterogeneity. Conclusion: This study provides robust, quantitative evidence that frailty is a major independent risk factor for dementia, with the strength of association varying by population and frailty domain. These findings underscore the imperative of integrating standardized, multi-domain frailty assessments into clinical practice to identify high-risk individuals and inform targeted, personalized prevention strategies for dementia. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, CRD420251008804.
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