Using the FRAIL scale to compare pre-existing demographic lifestyle and medical risk factors between non-frail, pre-frail and frail older adults accessing primary health care: a cross-sectional study

PeerJ

article

Vanessa Aznar-Tortonda¹  Antonio Palazón-Bru¹  Vicente Francisco Gil-Guillén¹ 

[1]Department of Clinical Medicine, Miguel Hernández University

关键词: Frailty;    Risk factors;    Aged;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.10380

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Background Few studies in the scientific literature have analyzed frailty status as an ordinal variable (non-frail, pre-frail and frail) rather than as a binary variable (frail vs non-frail). These studies have found that pre-frailty behaves differently from frailty (no ordinality in the variable). However, although the comparison between pre-frail and frail individuals is clinically relevant to understanding how to treat pre-frailty, this comparison was not performed in previous studies. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional observational study was designed with 621 older individuals aged ≥60 years in Spain in 2017–2018, determining factors associated with a higher frailty stage (non-frail, pre-frail and frail) and undertaking this comparison, in addition to measuring non-frailty. The factors assessed through a multinominal regression model were: age, sex, living alone, recent loss of the partner, income and total comorbidities. Results Of the total participants, 285 were non-frail (45.9%), 210 were pre-frail (33.8%) and 126 were frail (20.3%). Compared to non-frail individuals, pre-frail individuals were older, with more comorbidities and a lower income. Compared to non-frail individuals, frail individuals were more likely to be female, older, with more comorbidities and a lower income. Compared to pre-frail individuals, frail individuals were more likely to be female, older and with more comorbidities. Conclusion Comparison between the pre-frail and frail groups showed that frail persons were more likely to have a lower income, be female, older and have a higher number of comorbidities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY