Imuta H, Yasumura S, Abe H, Fukao A
Department of Public Health, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Japan.
Aging (Milano). 2001 Dec;13(6):443-53.
There is insufficient epidemiological data about frail elders in Japan. Few studies concerning the relationship between psychosocial characteristics and frailty exist in the literature. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and to explore the characteristics of the frail elderly in a community of Japan by cross-sectional and case-control studies. Data were collected from a total of 2,310 non-institutionalized persons aged 65 years or older, by mail survey and interview. We defined frailty as a precursor of disability. The prevalence of frail elders was estimated at 6.1%. After controlling for age and gender, multiple logistic regression analyses disclosed that frail elders displayed significantly higher emotional reliance on another person, worsening self-efficacy, fair or poor subjective health, and poor functional ability than independent elders, and significantly higher self-efficacy than bedridden elders. The most noticeable finding in this study was the significant association of psychosocial factors with frailty among the community-dwelling elderly. Based on our study results, we suggest that when controlling physical variables, psychosocial variables might strongly affect the frail status among elderly persons.
日本缺乏关于体弱老年人的流行病学数据。文献中很少有关于心理社会特征与虚弱之间关系的研究。本研究的目的是通过横断面研究和病例对照研究，评估日本一个社区中体弱老年人的患病率，并探讨其特征。通过邮寄调查和访谈，从总共2310名65岁及以上的非机构化人员中收集数据。我们将虚弱定义为残疾的先兆。体弱老年人的患病率估计为6.1%。在控制年龄和性别后，多元逻辑回归分析显示，与独立老年人相比，体弱老年人对他人的情感依赖显著更高，自我效能感恶化，主观健康状况一般或较差，功能能力较差；与卧床老年人相比，体弱老年人的自我效能感显著更高。本研究中最值得注意的发现是，心理社会因素与社区居住老年人的虚弱之间存在显著关联。基于我们的研究结果，我们建议，在控制身体变量时，心理社会变量可能会强烈影响老年人的虚弱状态。
