ORIGINAL RESEARCH Cognitive frailty among Malaysian older adults: baseline findings from the LRGS TUA cohort study This article was published in the following Dove Press journal: Clinical Interventions in Aging Nurul Fatin Malek Rivan 1 Suzana Shahar 2 Nor Fadilah Rajab 3 Devinder Kaur Ajit Singh 4 Normah Che Din 5 Mahadzir Hazlina 6 Tengku Aizan Tengku Abdul Hamid 7 1 Nutritional Sciences Programme and Centre for Healthy Ageing and Wellness (H-CARE), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 2 Dietetics Programme and Centre for Healthy Ageing and Wellness (H-CARE), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 3 Biomedical Science Programme, School of Diagnostic and Applied Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 4 Physiotherapy Programme, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 5 Health Psychology Programme and Centre for Healthy Ageing and Wellness (H-CARE), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 6 Internal Medicine & Geriatric Department, Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 7 Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Purpose: This study was aimed at determining the presence of cognitive frailty and its associated factors among community-dwelling older adults from the “LRGS-Towards Useful Aging (TUA)” longitudinal study. Patients and methods: The available data related to cognitive frailty among a sub-sample of older adults aged 60 years and above (n=815) from two states in Malaysia were analysed. In the LRGS-TUA study, a comprehensive interview-based questionnaire was administered to obtain the socio-demographic information of the participants, followed by assessments to examine the cognitive function, functional status, dietary intake, lifestyle, psychosocial status and biomarkers associated with cognitive frailty. The factors associated with cognitive frailty were assessed using a bivariate logistic regression (BLR). Results: The majority of the older adults were categorized as robust (68.4%), followed by cognitively pre-frail (37.4%) and cognitively frail (2.2%). The data on the cognitively frail and pre-frail groups were combined for comparison with the robust group. A hierarchical BLR indicated that advancing age (OR=1.04, 95% CI:1.01–1.08, p<0.05) and depression (OR=1.49, 95% CI:1.34–1.65, p<0.001) scored lower on the Activity of Daily Living (ADL) scale (OR=0.98, 95% CI:0.96–0.99, p<0.05), while low social support (OR=0.98, 95% CI:0.97–0.99, p<0.05) and low niacin intake (OR=0.94, 95% CI:0.89–0.99, p<0.05) were found to be significant factors for cognitive frailty. Higher oxidative stress (MDA) and lower telomerase activity were also associated with cognitive frailty (p<0.05). Conclusion: Older age, a lower niacin intake, lack of social support, depression and lower functional status were identified as significant factors associated with cognitive frailty among older Malaysian adults. MDA and telomerase activity can be used as potential biomarkers for the identification of cognitive frailty. Keywords: frailty, mild cognitive impairment, cognitive frailty, older adults Introduction Frailty and cognitive decline have been identified as potent risk factors for dementia, functional decline, disability, poor quality of life, and mortality. 1 Even though it has been shown that both frailty and cognitive impairment are related, 2 these constructs were studied separately in most researches. 3,4 To address this gap, a new construct called cognitive frailty was introduced by the International Academy on Nutrition and Aging (I.A.N.A) and the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (I.A.G.G). 5 Cognitive frailty has been described as a heterogeneous clinical manifestation characterized by the simultaneous presence of both physical frailty and cognitive Correspondence: Suzana Shahar Dietetics Programme and Centre for Healthy Ageing and Wellness (H-CARE), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, Kuala Lumpur 50300, Malaysia Tel +60 392 897 159 7163 Fax +60 32 693 8717 Email suzana.shahar@ukm.edu.my Clinical Interventions in Aging Dovepress open access to scientific and medical research Open Access Full Text Article submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com Clinical Interventions in Aging 2019:14 1343–1352 1343 DovePress © 2019 Malek Rivan et al. 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