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Association of food insecurity with frailty among older adults in India

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 30 January 2018

A Correction to this article was published on 17 January 2018

This article has been updated

Abstract

Background

Past investigations in different nations have demonstrated that food insecurity may lead to frailty among older adults; however, there is no evidence concerning these associations in India. Our investigation tries to fill this gap utilizing WAVE I of WHO SAGE 2007 information.

Objectives

To examine the independent effect of food insecurity on frailty. To assess differences in frailty and other correlates between food secure and insecure older individuals.

Methods

The Fried phenotype approach was used to create a frailty index using the presence of five indicators among older adults: exhaustion, weight loss, physical activity, weakness, and walking speed. Respondents were called robust, pre-frail, or frail based on the presence of zero, one, or two or more indicators from the five indicators, respectively. Individuals were classified as food insecure based on their responses to two five-point Likert scale-type questions: if they had less food than required because there was not enough food and if they had been hungry but did not eat because they could not afford food in more than 1 or 2 months in the last 12 months. Bivariate analysis was performed to determine the differences in all the correlates and frailty among older adults with food security and insecurity. Step-by-step logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the effect of food insecurity on frailty.

Results

Bivariate results show that from a total of 6650 adults aged 50 years or older, 16.05% are food insecure, and of them, 19% are frail. In addition, frailty is significantly associated with food insecurity (p < 0.001). These findings are further corroborated by multivariate analysis results showing that food insecure older adults have higher odds of being frail compared to their counterparts (OR = 1.31, 95% CI 1.10; 1.65, P < 0.001) in the adjusted model for all the correlates. Education and wealth are also among major factors aggravating frailty among older adults.

Conclusion

Based on our results, we conclude that, after controlling for correlates, food insecurity is associated with frailty, which further prevents older adults from accessing nutritious food and causes them to lose their independence. Thus, the government needs to introduce focused sustenance programs for the elderly population who do not have regular access to food and are frail to prevent early disability and mortality.

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Change history

  • 30 January 2018

    The journal had been advised to revise the title so that Clarivate Analytics can try to count the citations more accurately. There’s been confusion due to the existence of another journal with the same name.

  • 17 January 2018

    The real name of the author is Mamta Chaudhary.

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Funding

This research received no grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India

    Mamta Chaudhary

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  1. Mamta Chaudhary
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Correspondence to Mamta Chaudhary.

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Informed consent

The study used a data set that is available online in the public domain; hence, there was no need to seek ethical consent to publish this study.

Ethical treatment of experimental subjects (animal and human)

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the author.

Additional information

The original version of this article was revised: Due to the existence of another journal with the same name, the Publisher has added a subtitle, “From Theory to Practice.” Effective as of January 2018, the new title of this Journal is Journal of Public Health: From Theory to Practice.

The original version of this article was revised: The real name of the corresponding author is Mamta Chaudhary, not Mamta Chaudhury.

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Chaudhary, M. Association of food insecurity with frailty among older adults in India. J Public Health 26, 321–330 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-017-0866-4

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