Page 22 - IJPS-11-1

International Journal of

Population Studies

REVIEW ARTICLE
Early-life determinants of frailty: A

comprehensive review

1†
2†
4
3
Hua Liu , Mengyao Wang , Xuchao Peng , Jirong Yue 3 , and Chenkai Wu *
1 Department of Neurosurgery, The Affiliated Kunshan Hospital of Jiangsu University, Suzhou,
Jiangsu, China
2 Department of Economics, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
3 Department of Geriatrics and National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China Hospital,
Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
4 Global Health Research Center, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, Jiangsu, China

Abstract

Frailty is a complex, aging-related clinical syndrome characterized by decreased
reserves to stressors. Factors in early life are posited to have a long-term impact
† These authors contributed equally
to this work. on health through separate and combined effects of biological, behavioral, and
*Corresponding author: psychosocial mechanisms. There is a consensus that physical, behavioral, psychosocial,
Chenkai Wu and environmental risk factors in early life play essential roles in developing frailty in
(chenkai.wu@dukekunshan.edu.cn) old age. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed a proliferation of literature
Citation: Liu, H., Wang, M., on early-life risk factors for frailty in developed and developing countries and areas.
Peng, X., Yue, J. & Wu, C. (2025). We summarized empirical studies examining how early-life risk factors contributed to
Early-life determinants of frailty: A the development of frailty. We classified risk factors into four dimensions: biological
comprehensive review. International
Journal of Population Studies, factors, socioeconomic circumstances, healthy lifestyles, and environmental
11(1): 16-25. exposures. We identified a wide range of biological (body size and intelligence), social
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1982 (education, parental education, and socioeconomic conditions), lifestyle (childhood
Received: October 8, 2023 health status and nutritional status), and environmental factors (home environment,
1st revised: January 27, 2024 neighborhood quality, and traumatic wartime experience) associated with frailty in
old age. Future research should adopt novel methodologies to address the complexity
2nd revised: February 20, 2024 and interconnectedness of risk factors in distinct early-life stages, use more rigorous
3rd revised: March 21, 2024 study designs and analytic tools to unravel the underlying mechanisms, and pay
4th revised: May 28, 2024 more attention to the transition and progression of frailty. This review highlights the
enduring impact of early-life experiences on frailty and suggests the necessity of
Accepted: June 26, 2024 designing frailty interventions from a life course perspective. Interventions improving
Published Online: August 1, 2024 early-life circumstances might delay or even prevent the emergence of frailty in old
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). age.
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Keywords: Frailty; Aging; Early-life risk factors
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with Frailty is a multifaceted syndrome related to aging that reduces an individual’s resilience
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional to stress factors. It impacts around 10% of older adults living in communities globally
affiliations. (Collard et al., 2012). Frail individuals have a compromised ability to maintain system

Volume 11 Issue 1 (2025) 16 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1982