Dynamic Predictions of the Links Between Psychological and Physical Health of Older Patients in Nursing Home

Taking the older person as a whole is now essential to age well and prevent loss of functional independence. However, the relationship between physical and mental health remains not well understood. Combining the exploration of markers of inflammation, endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic functions, along with long-term monitoring of older persons, could allow for a comprehensive understanding of the biological phenotype, regardless of underlying pathologies. The primary objective will be to simultaneously test the psychosomatic model and the disability model in order to more fully account for the dynamic causal relationships between physical and mental health in older people. The investigators will investigate the mediating role of the biological phenotype on these relationships between mental and physical health. The independent and then combined analysis of specific candidate biomarkers will open up the possibility of identifying a biological mediation between mental and physical health. Furthermore, this will also allow us to deepen our understanding of the evolution of the immune-endocrine-metabolic state and, more broadly, of the biological phenotype of older people during aging.