Network analysis of frailty and aging: Empirical data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Frailty remains a challenge in the aging research area with a number of gaps in knowledge still to be filled. Frailty seems to behave as a network, and in silico evidence is available on this matter. Having in vivo evidence that frailty behaves as a complex network was the main purpose of our study.

Methods

Data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (main data 2012, mortality 2015) was used. Frailty was operationalized with a 35-deficit frailty index (FI). Analyzed nodes were the deficits plus death. The edges, linking those nodes were obtained through structural learning, and an undirected graph associated with a discrete probabilistic graphical model (Markov network) was derived. Two algorithms, hill-climbing (hc) and Peter and Clark (PC), were used to derive

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Pena C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7493650 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature