Higher frailty burden in older adults with chronic constipation

• Published in: BMC gastroenterology Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 137
• Main Authors: Lim, Jihye, Park, Hyungchul, Lee, Heayon, Lee, Eunju, Lee, Danbi, Jung, Hee-Won, Jang, Il-Young
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 25.03.2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Association analysis; Bowel motility; Chronic illnesses; Constipation; Constipation - epidemiology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Disease; Education; Frail Elderly; Frailty; Frailty - complications; Frailty - epidemiology; Gastroenterology; Genotype & phenotype; Geriatric Assessment; Geriatric assessments; Geriatrics; Health aspects; Humans; Intestine; Irritable bowel syndrome; Laxatives; Malnutrition; Multivariate analysis; Older people; Phenotypes; Polypharmacy; Population; Population studies; Prospective Studies; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Republic of Korea; Risk factors; Statistical analysis; Statistics; Republic of Korea; South Korea; Pyeongchang South Korea; Geriatric assessments; Aging; Bowel motility
• ISSN: 1471-230X; 1471-230X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12876-021-01684-x

Despite constipation being a common clinical condition in older adults, the clinical relevance of constipation related to frailty is less studied. Hence, we aimed to investigate the association between chronic constipation (CC) and frailty in older adults. This is a cross-sectional analysis of a population-based, prospective cohort study of 1278 community-dwelling older adults in South Korea. We used the Rome criteria to identify patients with irritable bowel syndrome with predominant constipation (IBS-C) and functional constipation (FC). We investigated whether participants consistent with the criteria for IBS-C and FC had CC. Frailty was assessed using the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) frailty phenotype. In the study population with a mean age of 75.3 ± 6.3 years, 136 (10.7%) had CC. The participants with CC were older, had higher medication burdens, and had worse physical performances compared to those without CC (All P < .05). By association analysis, the prevalence of CC was associated with frailty by the CHS criteria (P < .001). The CHS frailty score was associated with the presence of CC by the univariate logistic regression analysis and the multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, and multimorbidity. Frailty was associated with CC in community-dwelling older people, suggesting that constipation should be considered as an important geriatric syndrome in clinical practice concerning frail older adults.