Correlation between Frailty Level and Disability of the Elderly and Frailty Related Factors.

Ma, Seung Hyun; Jeung, Ki Yun; Hong, Sun Hyoung; Shim, Eun Young; Yoo, Sang Ho; Kim, Mee Young; Yoon, Jong Lull

doi:2009.30.8.588

Korean J Fam Med > Volume 30(8); 2009 > Article

Original Article

Korean Journal of Family Medicine 2009;30(8):588-597.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4082/kjfm.2009.30.8.588 Published online August 20, 2009.

Correlation between Frailty Level and Disability of the Elderly and Frailty Related Factors.

Seung Hyun Ma, Ki Yun Jeung, Sun Hyoung Hong, Eun Young Shim, Sang Ho Yoo, Mee Young Kim, Jong Lull Yoon

Department of Family Medicine, Hallym University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. lull@hallym.ac.kr

일부 지역사회 거주 노인들의 노쇠수준과 기능장애의 연관성 및 노쇠 관련요인

마승현, 정기윤, 홍선형, 심은영, 유상호, 김미영, 윤종률

한림대학교 의과대학 가정의학교실

Abstract

Background
Frailty is a wasting syndrome that presents loss of physiological function by aging, lowering of reserve capacity, and disability of body system. It is currently being considered an important issue in geriatrics. This study examined frailty level of Korean elderly in community and whether frailty can be meaningful a predictive factor for functional disability. Methods: Demographic characteristics, the number of chronic diseases and medications, cardiovascular health study (CHS) frailty index, study of osteoporotic fractures (SOF) frailty index, activities of daily living, Instrumental activities of daily living, depression, mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and fall history were examined for 302 men and women over 65 years old who visited the three community seniors welfare centers from February 2008 to June 2008. Results: There were defi nite differences of frailty status by age, educational level, marital status, monthly income, body mass index, the number of chronic diseases, the number of medications, depression, MMSE and fall history (P < 0.05), except in gender (P < 0.432). In logistic regression analysis for functional disability with frailty status defi ned by SOF frailty index, odds ratio to dependency of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) from the healthy to the prefrail stage increased 6.84 times while from the healthy to the frail stage increased 130.87 times. These effects still increased after covariate adjustment. Also, the CHS frailty index showed the same result although there was some difference in odds ratio.Conclusion: There were meaningful correlations of frailty with functional disability when dividing Korean elderly's frailty levels into the healthy, the prefrail and the frail stages.

Key Words: Elderly; Frailty; Functional Disability; Frailty-related Factors