(P13-014-24) Nutritional, Clinical, and Hormonal Biomarkers Are Predictive of Physical and Mental Resilience Scores in Adults

Objectives: Biomarkers of resilience have not been determined in a nationally representative healthy US adult population. This exploratory project defined multifactorial physical and mental resilience variables to identify biomarker predictors of resilience.

Methods: Healthy males (n=6,358) and non-pregnant, non-lactating females (n=5,989) age 17-65 y from NHANES 2007-2012 were included. Physical resilience score was defined as a composite of physical activity (met*min/wk), body fat (%), and sedentary activity (min), and mental resilience score as a composite of depression score (Patient Health Questionnaire-9; 0-27), mental health days not good during the month (0-30 d), and hours of sleep on weekdays (1-14.4 h). Biomarkers extracted from NHANES laboratory data were included as independent variables in backwards elimination regression analyses.

Results: In males, physical resilience was positively associated with hematocrit, globulin, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), glomerular filtration rate (GFR), free triiodothyronine, cotinine, lactate dehydrogenase, lead, and vitamin D, and negatively associated with insulin, red blood cell folate, triglycerides (TG), aspartate transaminase, and total thyroxine (adjusted R²=0.27, P< 0.0001). In females, physical resilience was positively associated with albumin, HDL-cholesterol, TG, creatinine, GFR, chloride, cotinine, and vitamin D, and negatively associated with insulin, red cell distribution width (RDW), uric acid, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), sodium, and potassium (adjusted R²=0.27, P< 0.0001). In males, mental resilience was positively associated with total cholesterol and BUN, and negatively associated with RDW, TG, creatinine, osmolality, and cotinine (adjusted R²=0.077, P< 0.0001). In females, mental resilience was positively associated with albumin and thyroid-stimulating hormone, and negatively associated with glucose, insulin, ALP, and cotinine (adjusted R²=0.085, P< 0.0001).

Conclusions: In males and females, a combination of nutritional, clinical, and hormonal biomarkers explained 27% of the variability in physical resilience score. Predictive biomarkers explained 8% of mental resilience score in males and 9% in females.

Funding Sources: Defense Health Program and USAMRDC; views expressed do not reflect official policy of the Dept of Army, DoD, or US Government.