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Association between frailty and a measure of cognition: a cross-sectional study on community-dwelling older adults

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Abstract

Background

Frailty is a geriatric syndrome that is generally represented as a universal issue in the aging population and may lead to adverse health-related events. The most widely used definition of frailty was proposed by Fried et al., wherein frailty is characterized by low physical activity, involuntary weight loss, exhaustion, poor muscle strength, and slow gait speed. The concept of “cognitive frailty” (simultaneous occurrence of both cognitive impairment and physical frailty) has recently been proposed. The Alzheimer’s Disease 8 (AD8) is a brief questionnaire used to differentiate normal aging from dementia. We hypothesized a positive correlation between frailty and AD8 scores in community-dwelling older adults.

Methods

Individuals over 65 years who visited a medical center in Taipei city during May, 2012 to April, 2013 for an annual check-up were eligible. The final sample comprised 205 older adults (average age = 75.5 ± 7.6 years). Frailty status was determined according to the Fried frailty criteria. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the odds of frailty among individuals with AD8 scores of 2 or more.

Results

After adjusting for age, gender and health-related behaviors, the odds ratio of frailty for individuals with AD8 scores ≥ 2 was 5.3 (p = 0.008). This positive relationship remained even after adjustment for additional correlates.

Conclusion

The findings have important implications for the early identification of frailty risk, provided that longitudinal studies can identify the directionality of the relationship between AD8 scores and frailty.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, Songshan Branch, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ju-Ting Hsueh

  2. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Number 325, Section 2, Chang-gong Rd, Nei-Hu District, Taipei, 114, Taiwan

    Ju-Ting Hsueh, Tao-Chun Peng, Wei-Liang Chen, Li-Wei Wu, Yaw-Wen Chang & Tung-Wei Kao

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Wei-Shiung Yang

  4. Research Centre for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Wei-Shiung Yang

  5. Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Wei-Shiung Yang & Tung-Wei Kao

  6. Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

    Wei-Liang Chen

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  1. Ju-Ting Hsueh
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  2. Tao-Chun Peng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tung-Wei Kao.

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Conflict of interest

There is no conflict of interest for any of the authors related to the study.

Ethical approval

This study was conducted in the Tri-Service General Hospital (TSGH), Taipei, and was approved by the TSGH Ethics Committee in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (TSGHIRB 100-05-257).

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All participants provided written informed consent.

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Hsueh, JT., Peng, TC., Chen, WL. et al. Association between frailty and a measure of cognition: a cross-sectional study on community-dwelling older adults. Eur Geriatr Med 9, 39–43 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-017-0012-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-017-0012-4

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