Journal article
Serum IL-6 Level and the Development of Disability in Older Persons
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), Vol.47(6), pp.639-646
06/1999
DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1999.tb01583.x
PMID: 10366160
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The serum concentration of interleukin 6 (IL-6), a cytokine that plays a central role in inflammation, increases with age. Because inflammation is a component of many age-associated chronic disease, which often cause disability, high circulating levels of IL-6 may contribute to functional decline in old age. We tested the hypothesis that high levels of IL-6 predict future disability in older persons who are not disabled. METHODS: Participants at the sixth annual follow-up of the Iowa site of the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly aged 71 years or older were considered eligible for this study if they had no disability in regard to mobility or in selected activities of daily living (ADL), and they were re-interviewed 4 years later. Incident cases of mobility-disability and of ADL-disability were identified based on responses at the follow-up interview. Measures of IL-6 were obtained from specimens collected at baseline from the 283 participants who developed any disability and from 350 participants selected randomly (46.9%) from those who continued to be non-disabled. FINDINGS: Participants in the highest IL-6 tertile were 1.76 (95% CI, 1.17-2.64) times more likely to develop at least mobility- disability and 1.62 (95% CI, 1.02-2.60) times more likely to develop mobility plus ADL-disability compared with to the lowest IL-6 tertile. The strength of this association was almost unchanged after adjusting for multiple confounders. The increased risk of mobility-disability over the full spectrum of IL-6 concentration was nonlinear, with the risk rising rapidly beyond plasma levels of 2.5 pg/ml. INTERPRETATION: Higher circulating levels of IL- 6 predict disability onset in older persons. This may be attributable to a direct effect of IL-6 on muscle atrophy and/or to the pathophysiologic role played by IL-6 in specific diseases.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Serum IL-6 Level and the Development of Disability in Older Persons
- Creators
- Luigi Ferrucci - Florence (Netherlands)Tamara B. Harris - National Institutes of HealthJack M. Guralnik - National Institutes of HealthRussell P. Tracy - University of VermontMaria-Chiara Corti - University of PaduaHarvey J. Cohen - Duke UniversityBrenda Penninx - Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry Program, NIA, Bethesda, MarylandMarco Pahor - University of Tennessee Health Science CenterRobert Wallace - University of IowaRichard J. Havlik - National Institutes of Health
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), Vol.47(6), pp.639-646
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1999.tb01583.x
- PMID
- 10366160
- NLM abbreviation
- J Am Geriatr Soc
- ISSN
- 0002-8614
- eISSN
- 1532-5415
- Publisher
- Blackwell Publishing Ltd
- Number of pages
- 8
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/1999
- Academic Unit
- Epidemiology; Injury Prevention Research Center; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984364427802771
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