Frailty progress and related factors in the elderly living in community: a prospective study / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate frailty progress status and related factors in the elderly living in communities.Methods A cohort of elderly people aged 65 and over in Pingyi community of Dujiangyan,Sichuan province,was established.Face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted by trained interviewers.The frailty status,cognitive function,nutrition status and other functions of the subjects surveyed were evaluated at baseline survey and during follow-up.The socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the subjects surveyed were assessed at baseline survey.Binary logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with frailty progress.Results A total of 653 elderly people were surveyed in January 2014,and 507 elderly people were followed up while 146 elderly people terminated further follow-up in January 2017.The prevalence rates of frailty and pre-frailty at baseline survey were 11.2％ (n=57) and 26.2％ (n=133),respectively.After 3 years,205 subjects (40.4％) surveyed experienced frailty progress,276 (54.5％) remained to be in frailty state at baseline survey,and 26 (5.1％) had improvement.Disability (OR=8.27,95％CI1.62-42.26),visual problem (OR=2.02,95％CI1.27-3.22),cognitive impairment (OR=1.94,95％CI1.08-3.48),poor self-rated health (OR=1.89,95％ CI1.07-3.31),chronic pain (OR=1.57,95％ CI1.03-2.40) and older age (OR =1.12,95％CI1.08-1.17) were independently associated with the progress of frailty.In contract,overweight was a protective factor (OR=0.54,95％CI0.34-0.85).Conclusions Frailty is a dynamic syndrome affected by several socio-demographic factors and geriatric factors.The results of the study can be used in the prevention of frailty progress in the elderly in communities.