Biological age can predict cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality

Looking at your biological age—how old your body really is—can give a clearer picture of your heart disease risk than traditional tools alone. This finding comes from a newly published multicenter study conducted in collaboration between the Universities of Jyväskylä, Tampere, and Helsinki, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Finland, and the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.

Biological aging refers to the gradual deterioration of cells and tissues in the body that occurs with age, starting early in adulthood. This process affects bodily functions and increases the risk of both diseases and death. The rate at which biological aging progresses varies between individuals and is influenced by genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors.

In the study, the stage of biological aging was measured using two indicators: a frailty index, which represents the accumulation of health deficits across various bodily systems at the organismal level, and telomere length, which serves as a cellular-level marker. Traditional cardiovascular disease risk indicators were SCORE2, SCORE2-OP, and the Framingham risk score. They consider chronological age, sex, and health or lifestyle factors but not the stage of biological aging.

Postdoctoral Researcher Anna Tirkkonen from the University of Jyväskylä and Senior Research Fellow Laura Kananen from Tampere University and the Karolinska Institutet explain the results of the study published in Age and Ageing. “Our study showed that the frailty index can help to evaluate a person’s cardiovascular disease risk,” Tirkkonen says.

“This was seen in three cohorts from Finland and Sweden, comprising over 14,000 individuals without cardiovascular disease history. The finding was observed for people who were older (70+) but also for those who were younger, less than 70 years.”

“We also found that the frailty index alone can reflect the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease over the next ten years quite accurately,” says Kananen. “Interestingly, the results for telomere length were different. Telomere length was related to cardiovascular risk less evidently.”

Studies on this topic are rare. The researchers believe their study is the first on the topic using the frailty index and the SCORE2 or SCORE2-OP risk score.

“There has only been one previous study addressing this issue with the frailty index and the Framingham risk score, and our findings are consistent with those results,” says Tirkkonen.

The researchers think that biological age should be considered in cardiovascular disease risk tools.

“Based on our findings, a frailty index that reflects the gradual accumulation of age-related health deficits and represents comprehensively the health, functioning, and overall well-being seems to be a particularly effective indicator for this purpose,” Kananen says. “It is also easy to measure. It can be derived, for example, from a relatively simple questionnaire.”