Institute of Health and Society, Université Catholique de Louvain, Clos Chapelle-aux-Champs 30, bte 3005, 1200 Brussels, Belgium.
BMC Geriatr. 2010 Jun 17;10:39. doi: 10.1186/1471-2318-10-39.
In coming decades the proportion of very elderly people living in the Western world will dramatically increase. This forthcoming "grey epidemic" will lead to an explosion of chronic diseases. In order to anticipate booming health care expenditures and to assure that social security is funded in the future, research focusing on the relationship between chronic diseases, frailty and disability is needed. The general aim of the BELFRAIL cohort study (BFC80+) is to study the dynamic interaction between health, frailty and disability in a multi-system approach focusing on cardiac dysfunction and chronic heart failure, lung function, sarcopenia, renal insufficiency and immunosenescence.
METHODS/DESIGN: The BFC80+ is a prospective, observational, population-based cohort study of subjects aged 80 years and older in three well-circumscribed areas of Belgium. In total, 29 general practitioner (GP) centres were asked to include patients aged 80 and older. Only three exclusion criteria were used: severe dementia, in palliative care and medical emergency. Two sampling methods for the recruitment of patients were used. Between November 2, 2008 and September 15, 2009, 567 subjects were included in the BFC80+ study. Every study participant was invited to undergo four study visits. The GP recorded background variables and medical history and performed a detailed anamnesis and clinical examination. The clinical research assistant performed an extensive examination including performance testing, questionnaires and technical examinations. Echocardiography was performed at home by a cardiologist. A blood sample was collected in the morning. Follow-up reporting of hard outcome measures including mortality, hospitalization and morbidity was organized. A second data collection is planned after 18 months.
The BFC80+ was designed to acquire a better understanding of the epidemiology and pathophysiology of chronic diseases in the very elderly and to study the dynamic interaction between health, frailty and disability in a multi-system approach. The wide variety of dimensions investigated in the BFC80+ will enable us not only to investigate in depth the relationship between the different physiological systems but also to initiate new research questions based on this unique database of community-dwelling elderly.
在未来几十年，西方世界非常高龄人口的比例将大幅增加。即将到来的“老龄化危机”将导致慢性病的爆发。为了预测医疗保健支出的增长，并确保未来的社会保障资金充足，需要对慢性病、虚弱和残疾之间的关系进行研究。BELFRAIL 队列研究（BFC80+）的总体目标是采用多系统方法研究健康、虚弱和残疾之间的动态相互作用，重点关注心脏功能障碍和慢性心力衰竭、肺功能、肌肉减少症、肾功能不全和免疫衰老。
方法/设计：BFC80+是一项针对比利时三个划定区域 80 岁及以上人群的前瞻性、观察性、基于人群的队列研究。共邀请了 29 家全科医生（GP）中心纳入 80 岁及以上的患者。仅使用了三个排除标准：严重痴呆、临终关怀和医疗紧急情况。使用了两种抽样方法来招募患者。在 2008 年 11 月 2 日至 2009 年 9 月 15 日期间，BFC80+研究纳入了 567 名患者。每位研究参与者都被邀请接受四次研究访问。GP 记录背景变量和病史，并进行详细的病史询问和临床检查。临床研究助理进行了广泛的检查，包括性能测试、问卷调查和技术检查。由心脏病专家在家中进行超声心动图检查。早上采集血样。组织了对包括死亡率、住院率和发病率在内的严重结果的随访报告。计划在 18 个月后进行第二次数据收集。
BFC80+旨在更好地了解非常高龄人群中慢性病的流行病学和病理生理学，并采用多系统方法研究健康、虚弱和残疾之间的动态相互作用。BFC80+ 中调查的各种维度不仅使我们能够深入研究不同生理系统之间的关系，而且还能够基于这个独特的社区居住的老年人数据库提出新的研究问题。
