Associations between Multimorbidity and Physical Performance in Older Chinese Adults

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Shan-Shan Yao¹  Gui-Ying Cao¹  Yan Luo¹  He-Xuan Su¹  Zi-Shuo Chen¹  Yonghua Hu¹  Zi-Ting Huang¹  Ling Han²  Xiangfei Meng³  Kaipeng Wang⁴  Beibei Xu⁵ 

[1] Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China;Department of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA;Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A1A1, Canada;Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208, USA;Medical Informatics Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China;

关键词: multimorbidity;    grip strength;    gait speed;    physical performance;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph17124546

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Evidence on the association between physical performance and multimorbidity is scarce in Asia. This study aimed to identify multimorbidity patterns and their association with physical performance among older Chinese adults. Methods: Individuals aged ≥60 years from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2011–2015 (N = 10,112) were included. Physical performance was measured by maximum grip strength (kg) and average gait speed (m/s) categorized as fast (>0.8 m/s), median (>0.6–0.8 m/s), and slow (≤0.6 m/s). Multimorbidity patterns were explored using exploratory factor analysis. Generalized estimating equation was conducted. Results: Four multimorbidity patterns were identified: cardio–metabolic, respiratory, mental–sensory, and visceral–arthritic. An increased number of chronic conditions was associated with decreased normalized grip strength (NGS). Additionally, the highest quartile of factor scores for cardio–metabolic (β = −0.06; 95% Confidence interval (CI) = −0.07, −0.05), respiratory (β = −0.03; 95% CI = −0.05, −0.02), mental–sensory (β = −0.04; 95% CI = −0.05, −0.03), and visceral–arthritic (β = −0.04; 95% CI = −0.05, −0.02) patterns were associated with lower NGS compared with the lowest quartile. Participants with ≥4 chronic conditions were 2.06 times more likely to have a slow gait speed. Furthermore, the odds ratios for the highest quartile of factor scores of four patterns with slow gait speed compared with the lowest quartile ranged from 1.26–2.01. Conclusion: Multimorbidity was related to worse physical performance, and multimorbidity patterns were differentially associated with physical performance. A shift of focus from single conditions to the requirements of a complex multimorbid population was needed for research, clinical guidelines, and health-care services. Grip strength and gait speed could be targeted to routinely measure clinical performance among older adults with multimorbidity, especially mental–sensory disorders, in clinical settings.

【 授权许可】

Unknown