Screening Value of Social Frailty and Its Association with Physical Frailty and Disability in Community-Dwelling Older Koreans: Aging Study of PyeongChang Rural Area

Hyungchul Park, Il-Young Jang, Hea yon Lee, Hee-Won Jung, Eunju Lee and Dae Hyun Kim
Additional contact information
Hyungchul Park: Department of Internal Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul 05505, Korea
Il-Young Jang: Department of Internal Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul 05505, Korea
Hea yon Lee: Department of Internal Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul 05505, Korea
Hee-Won Jung: Division of geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
Eunju Lee: Department of Internal Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul 05505, Korea
Dae Hyun Kim: Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston, MA 02131, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 16, 1-11

Abstract: Population aging is a challenge, therefore efficient frailty screening has been increasingly emphasized for mass older populations. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of social frailty and its association with physical frailty, geriatric syndromes and activity of daily living (ADL) disability in community-dwelling older adults. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 408 older adults (mean age, 75 years; 58% female) in the Aging Study of PyeongChang Rural Area. A five-item social frailty index was administered (range: 0–5); (1) going out less frequently; (2) rarely visiting the homes of friends; (3) feeling unhelpful to friends and family; (4) being alone; and (5) not talking with someone every day. Social frailty was defined as ≥2 positive responses. Physical frailty was assessed according to the Cardiovascular Health Study frailty phenotype criteria. We used logistic regression to examine whether social frailty can identify older adults with common geriatric syndromes including ADL disability, independently of age, gender, and physical frailty. Social frailty was present in 20.5% (14.5% in male and 25.0% in female) and 11.5% was not overlapped with physical frailty. Social frailty increased risk of ADL disability (odds ratio, 2.53; 95% confidence interval, 1.26–5.09) and depressed mood (odds ratio, 4.01; 95% confidence interval, 1.30–12.39) independently of age, gender, and physical frailty. The predictive power for disability was maximized by using both frailty indices (C statistic 0.73) compared with either frailty index alone (C statistic: 0.71 for social frailty and 0.68 for physical frailty). Social frailty screening is important as it can identify frail older adults who are not captured by demographic characteristics and physical frailty. Moreover, assessment of both social frailty and physical frailty can better detect disability and geriatric syndromes.

Keywords: social frailty; physical frailty; disability; geriatric assessment; public health practice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2809/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2809/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:16:p:2809-:d:255348

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().