Frailty prevalence and factors associated with the Frailty Phenotype and Frailty Index: Findings from the North West Adelaide Health Study

• Published in: Australasian journal on ageing Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 120 - 126
• Main Authors: Thompson, Mark Q, Theou, Olga, Yu, Solomon, Adams, Robert J, Tucker, Graeme R, Visvanathan, Renuka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia 01.06.2018
• Subjects: Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Australia; cohort studies; epidemiologic measurements; Female; Frail Elderly; frail older adults; Frailty - diagnosis; Frailty - epidemiology; Frailty - physiopathology; Geriatric Assessment - methods; Humans; Income; Male; Multimorbidity; Obesity - epidemiology; Phenotype; Polypharmacy; Predictive Value of Tests; Prevalence; Risk Factors; Single Person; Smoking - epidemiology; South Australia - epidemiology; Surveys and Questionnaires; cohort studies; prevalence; epidemiologic measurements; Australia; frail older adults
• ISSN: 1440-6381; 1741-6612
• DOI: 10.1111/ajag.12487

Objective To determine the prevalence of frailty and associated factors in the North West Adelaide Health Study (2004–2006) using the Frailty Phenotype (FP) and Frailty Index (FI). Methods Frailty was measured in 909 community‐dwelling participants aged ≥65 years using the FP and FI. Results The FP classified 18% of participants as frail and the FI 48%. The measures were strongly correlated (r = 0.76, P < 0.001) and had a kappa agreement of 0.38 for frailty classification, with 37% of participants classified as non‐frail by the FP being classified as frail by the FI. Being older, a current smoker, and having multimorbidity and polypharmacy were associated with higher frailty levels by both tools. Female, low income, obesity and living alone were associated with the FI. Conclusion Frailty prevalence was higher when assessed using the FI. Socioeconomic factors and other health determinants contribute to higher frailty levels.