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Relationship between self-reported visual impairment and worsening frailty transition states in older people: a longitudinal study

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Abstract

Background

Visual impairment (VI) may lead to worsening functional status and disability. Although disability is very difficult to reverse, it is usually preceded by frailty that may be reverted more easily. It is possible that VI is also related to frailty.

Aims

To assess the relationship between VI and worsening of the frailty status.

Methods

Data were taken from the Toledo Study for Healthy Aging (TSHA), a cohort study of community-dwelling people older than 65 years living in one Spanish province who were followed for 5 years. 1181 participants were included. VI was self-reported and frailty was operationalized using the Fried’s phenotype adapted to a Spanish population. Models of multivariate logistic regression were built to assess the associations.

Results

The mean age was 73.9 (Standard Deviation (SD) = 5 years) and 58.5% were females. Pre-frailty/frailty prevalence at baseline and follow-up were 41.2/5% and 36.2/12.5%, respectively, and VI was reported by 14.1%. After adjusting for age, gender, education level, tobacco consumption, type 2 diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, depressive symptoms and cognitive status, odds ratios for the development of frailty by VI were 2.5 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.5–4.4) for non-frail, 2.7 (95% CI 1.3–5.7) for pre-frail and 1.9 (CI 0.6–6.00) for robust participants. The frailty domains whose appearance was most increased by VI were slowness, low energy, low physical activity and weakness.

Discussion

Our findings support that VI worsens frailty in the early stages of its development (pre-frailty). VI impairs several frailty items at the same time.

Conclusions

Our study highlights the need to assess both VI and frailty for the prevention of frailty and disability in older people.

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Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and co-financed by FEDER funds (Instituto de Salud Carlos III, PI15/01160, PI15/00674, PI15/01969 and CIBERFES (CB16/10/00464), Spanish Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Research Foundation, Hospital Universitario de Getafe, Carretera Toledo Km 12,500, 28905, Getafe, Madrid, Spain

    Jimmy M. Gonzales-Turín, José A. Carnicero & Leocadio Rodríguez-Mañas

  2. CIBERFES, Biomedical Research Network Center in Frailty and Healthy Aging, Madrid, Spain

    Ángel Rodríguez-Laso, José A. Carnicero, Francisco J. García-García & Leocadio Rodríguez-Mañas

  3. Geriatric Department, Hospital Virgen del Valle, Toledo, Spain

    Francisco J. García-García

  4. Geriatric Department, Hospital Universitario de Getafe, Getafe, Madrid, Spain

    Leocadio Rodríguez-Mañas

Authors
  1. Jimmy M. Gonzales-Turín
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  2. Ángel Rodríguez-Laso
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  3. José A. Carnicero
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  4. Francisco J. García-García
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  5. Leocadio Rodríguez-Mañas
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Contributions

Study concept and design: FJG, LR. Acquisition of data: FJG, JAC. Analysis and interpretation of data: JAC, AR, JMG. Drafting of the manuscript: JMG, AR. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: AR, LR.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leocadio Rodríguez-Mañas.

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Conflict of interest statement

None of the authors had a conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

The study protocol was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the Toledo’s Hospital.

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All the participants gave their informed consent in writing.

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Gonzales-Turín, J.M., Rodríguez-Laso, Á., Carnicero, J.A. et al. Relationship between self-reported visual impairment and worsening frailty transition states in older people: a longitudinal study. Aging Clin Exp Res 33, 2491–2498 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-020-01768-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-020-01768-w

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