Health deficit accumulation in relation to cardiovascular disease burden

Project Summary

Frailty in cardiovascular disease is a problem related to poor quality of life, hospital visits, and earlier risk of dying. While frailty is common in cardiovascular disease, there is little research which determines if frailty is important in developing cardiovascular disease more quickly. We will look at large studies of people from Canada and other countries to track changes in frailty and cardiovascular disease development. We will identify groups of individuals who develop health problems at different rates before and after cardiovascular disease develops. We will study the impact of combinations of health problems which increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. We are interested in how social vulnerability affects frailty and cardiovascular disease. We will identify which health problems are important after a person has cardiovascular disease and hope to identify people with a greater risk for developing cardiovascular disease to tailor new prevention strategies.