Reading the Clouds Before the Rain: BelSU Tool Flags Disease Risk from Mood

Researchers from Medical Institute at Belgorod National Research University (BelSU) focused on women aged 55 and older – a group especially prone to asthenic syndrome, which brings persistent exhaustion, weakness, and depressed mood. As age increases, so do the risk factors, making timely detection critical.

“Standard tools measure fatigue or its severity, but they miss deeper signals that point to developing chronic disease,” Svetlana Gorelik, a professor in the Department of Faculty Surgery, told RIA Novosti.

The new scale fills that gap. By evaluating asthenic syndrome, it flags women vulnerable to arterial hypertension, heart failure, obesity, prediabetes, and presarcopenia – the quiet loss of muscle mass that can precede functional decline.

Professor Gorelik likened the tool to a barometer. "Imagine health as the weather. Conventional methods only detect the thunderstorm. Our approach senses the falling pressure before the first drop of rain – that pre-illness state. We don’t treat patients ourselves, but we hand doctors a chance to act early. The instrument has proven reliable, giving accurate readings in 85 to 90 per cent of cases.”

Fellow developer Irina Kochetkova, an intern in the BelSU Department of Hospital Surgery, confirmed plans to validate the scale across larger, more varied populations. The ambition is to embed it into routine examinations – whether on paper or inside an app.

The findings have been published in the journal Primary Health Care.