Fig. 5: Mortality risk stratification by tertiles of frailty-related metabolic signatures.

Participants were categorized into low-, moderate-, and high-risk groups based on tertiles of the frailty-related metabolic signatures. A Stratification based on the metabolic signature of physical frailty. B Stratification based on the metabolic signature of frailty index. For each risk group, the number of deaths, cumulative mortality rate (deaths per total participants), and mortality density (deaths per total person-years) are shown for all-cause mortality and for mortality due to cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD), respiratory disease, and digestive disease. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, Townsend Deprivation Index, ethnicity, education, physical activity, smoking status, alcohol consumption frequency, and dietary factors (fruit and vegetable intake; oily and non-oily fish; red meat, poultry, and processed meat). The low-risk group served as the reference. P values for between-group comparisons were corrected for multiple testing using the Benjamini–Hochberg method to control the false discovery rate (P-FDR). CVD cardiovascular disease, HR hazard ratio, CI confidence interval, P-FDR P-value adjusted for false discovery rate.