Serum SIRT6 Levels Are Associated with Frailty in Older Adults

OBJECTIVES: Frailty is one of the major health problems facing aging societies worldwide. We investigated the association between serum SIRT6 and frailty in older adults. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of associations of serum SIRT6 and frailty in older people. SETTING: Enrolled community-dwelling and hospital outpatient clinic adults older than 65 years old in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 540 community-dwelling older adults (age ≥ 65 years) in Wuhan were included in the study. MEASURES: We used Frailty Phenotype criteria for classifying participants based on their frailty status. Serum SIRT6 was measured using an ELISA kit. RESULTS: A total of 540 older adults were included in this cross-sectional study. Serum SIRT6 was lower in the slowness group (7.23±1.81 vs 5.89±1.74, p<0.001), weakness group (6.87±1.88 vs 5.68±1.64, p<0.001), and exhaustion group (6.73±1.90 vs 5.88±1.74, p<0.001) compare with the normal group. ROC curves were used to assess the efficiency of SIRT6 in predicting frailty in older adults. The AUC for SIRT6 was 0.792 (95% CI: 0.7514 to 0.8325), with the highest sensitivity of 68.0% and the specificity of 91.9%, and the optimal critical value of 4.65ng/ml according to Youden's index. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that serum SIRT6 level was independently associated with frailty in older people. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, serum SIRT6 was decreased in frailty compared with robust older adults. A decreased serum SIRT6 was independently associated with an increased risk of frailty. SIRT6 may be a potential target for the treatment of patients with frailty.