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The effect of social frailty on mental health and quality of life in older people: a cross-sectional study

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Key summary points

AbstractSection Aim

This study aimed to determine related factors of social frailty.

AbstractSection Findings

The rates of depression, loneliness, anxiety, death anxiety, the burden of chronic disease, and frailty were higher in the social frailty group. There was a strong link between social frailty and widowhood, moderate to severe anxiety symptoms, and a TFI-physical frailty score.

AbstractSection Message

The mental health of older adults is associated with the social dimension of frailty.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate anxiety, depression, loneliness, death anxiety, and quality of life and investigate their relationship with social frailty in the geriatric population. Additionally, it aimed to identify social frailty predictors.

Methods

The study included 136 participants admitted to the geriatric outpatient clinic. The 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale for Geriatrics (CIRS-G), the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (T-DAS), the Loneliness Scale for the Elderly (LSE), the Quality of Life Scale (CASP-19), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Test (GAD-7), the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI), the FRAIL Scale, and the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) were performed. The TFI was used to collect data about social frailty.

Results

There were 61.8% females, and the median age (min-max) was 72.2 (65.3–90.3) years. The prevalence rate of social frailty was 26.7%. The rates of depression, loneliness, anxiety, death anxiety, the burden of chronic disease, and frailty were higher in the social frailty group. Furthermore, logistic regression analysis revealed a strong relationship between social frailty status and widowhood (odds ratio (OR) 6.86; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 2.42–19.37; p < 0.001), moderate to severe anxiety symptoms (OR 4.37; 95% CI 1.08–17.68; p = 0.038), and a TFI-physical frailty score (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.12–1.73; p = 0.002).

Conclusion

In older adults, the social dimension of frailty is associated with quality of life and psychological state. Physical frailty and sociodemographic characteristics may affect the development of social frailty.

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Funding

This study was not sponsored. This research did not receive any funding from agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Altındag, Ankara, Turkey

    Ezgi Odaci Comertoglu

  2. Department of Geriatrics, Eskisehir City Hospital, Health Sciences University, Eskisehir, Turkey

    Yelda Ozturk

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Merve Hafizoglu, Cafer Balci, Burcu Balam Dogu, Meltem Halil & Mustafa Cankurtaran

  4. Department of Geriatrics, Adana City Training and Research Hospital, Health Sciences University, Adana, Turkey

    Zeynep Kahyaoglu

  5. Department of Geriatrics Mehmet, Akif Inan Training and Research Hospital, Health Sciences University, Sanliurfa, Turkey

    Cagatay Cavusoglu

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Ozlem Erden Aki

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  1. Ezgi Odaci Comertoglu
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Contributions

EOC, ZK, CC, OEA, and MC equally contributed to the conception and design of the research; EOC, YO, and ZK equally contributed to the acquisition and analysis of the data; EOC, YO, MH, BBD, CB, and MC equally contributed to the interpretation of the data; EOC, YO, and, MH critically revised the manuscript and drafted the manuscript. All authors agree to be fully accountable for ensuring the integrity and accuracy of the work and to read and approve the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ezgi Odaci Comertoglu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study’s ethics approval has come from the Ankara Hacettepe University Department of Medicine clinical research ethics committee, and the decision number is 2020/12-15-GO 20/1038. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all patients before inclusion in the study.

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Odaci Comertoglu, E., Ozturk, Y., Hafizoglu, M. et al. The effect of social frailty on mental health and quality of life in older people: a cross-sectional study. Eur Geriatr Med 15, 453–461 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-024-00931-0

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