ASSOCIATON BETWEEN NITRITE LEVELS AND SURVIVAL IN OLDER ADULTS

Resumo

Aim: A previous study suggested that nitric oxide plasma levels might be associated
with aging and survival in older adults participants; however a need for further evidence
from complementary studies was identified. We assessed levels of plasma nitrite, an
indicator of nitric oxide metabolism, other biochemical, anthropometric and
physiological variables and other health and lifestyle indicators in the older adults of a
free-living Amazonian community.
Methods: We assessed 588 participants in two categories, younger elderly (>60 to <
69 years old, n=274) and older elderly (> 70 years old, n=314) over three years; the
main outcome was survival rate.
Results: After three years 74 (12.6%) participants had died. As expected, age was
associated with mortality independent of other variables [OR= 2.262, 95% CI-1.296-
3.947]. In older elderly with higher nitrite values (> 42 μmol/L) were associated with
increased mortality. In Kaplan–Meier analyses of mortality older elderly in 4th quartile
of the nitrite level distribution had a worse prognosis than those in the lower quartiles.
Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that this association was independent of
gender, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, obesity, smoking, previous cardiovascular and
other morbidities, daily intake of medicine, education level and marital status.
Conclusions: The results corroborate the hypothesis that nitrite has potential as a
predictive indicator of survival and suggest that nitric oxide may play a considerable
role in aging processes and hence in age-related diseases and deficits.