Abstract
The association of physical frailty and psycho-social health is well established. However, it appears no study on the interaction of these conditions in determining the Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) has yet been attempted in India. Hence, present study aims to investigate the interaction effects of physical frailty and psycho-social health in determining the HRQoL. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 500 community-dwelling rural older adults from West Bengal, India. The modified Fried’s Frailty instrument was assessed physical frailty status. Psycho-social characteristics investigated were depression, anxiety and stress using the 21-item DASS instrument, loneliness using the UCLA Loneliness instrument, and cognitive function using the Mini-Mental State Examination instrument. HRQoL was assessed by the 36-items Short Form health survey questionnaire. Overall prevalence of frail, pre-frail and non-frail was 26.2%, 60.2%, and 13.6%, respectively. One-way ANOVA highlighted that mean scores of psycho-social traits are significantly differed among different physical frailty status groups (p < 0.01). All the participants were clustered with their psycho-social characteristics instrument scores as clustering variables using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis to understand psycho-social health of the participants. Two-way ANCOVA showed significant interaction of physical frailty status (frail, pre-frail and non-frail) and empirically occurring clusters of psycho-social health (low, moderate and good) in determining the overall HRQoL [F(8,491) = 8.904,p < 0.01]. Thus, the study findings suggest that consideration of physical frailty and psycho-social health status will be a prudent approach for a better diagnosis of HRQoL and challenges related to the same.
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Acknowledgements
We are gratefully acknowledging all of the participants for their generous cooperation. The authors are thankful to Dr Baidyanath Pal of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata (India) for his valuable comments during data analyses. We thank ‘Itarai Asha Deep’ and Dr. Ketaki Das, Public Health Research Officer, West Bengal Voluntary Health Association for organising the fieldwork. We are indebted to the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (India) for logistic support.
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The authors disclosed receipt of financial support from India's University Grants Commission [Award No. F.15–9(JULY 2016).2016(NET)] for this research.
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Das, S., Mukhopadhyay, S. & Mukhopadhyay, B. The Association between Physical Frailty and Psycho-Social Health in Determining Geriatric Health-Related Quality of Life in Rural West Bengal, India. Ageing Int 48, 984–998 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-022-09511-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-022-09511-8