McGill/University of Montreal Solidage Research Group, Montreal, Canada.
Aging Clin Exp Res. 2010 Feb;22(1):54-62. doi: 10.1007/BF03324816. Epub 2009 Nov 25.
The term frailty is used to describe older persons at high risk for adverse health outcomes. In 2001, Fried et al. proposed a now widely cited definition which suggests that frailty is a clinical entity related to, but distinct from, ADL disability and comorbidity. Frailty status was assessed based on the presence of any three of the following five characteristics: shrinking, weakness, poor endurance, slowness, and low activity. The objectives of the current study are to estimate the prevalence of frailty in a sample of community-dwelling older persons, to identify sociodemographic and health variables associated with frailty, and to examine the complex relationships between frailty and comorbidity, ADL disability and IADL disability.
This study is based on cross-sectional analysis of 740 community-dwelling seniors from the Montreal Unmet Needs Study (MUNS). The five characteristics of frailty were operationalised using measures available in MUNS. The Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test was used to identify variables associated with frailty. Overlaps between frailty, comorbidity and disability were assessed using proportions.
Overall, 7.4% were classified as frail, 49.7% prefrail and 42.8% non-frail. Frailty was associated with age, sex, income, education, number of chronic diseases, ADL disability, and IADL disability. Among those classified as frail, 29.1% had disabilities in ADLs, 92.7% in IADLs and 81.8% had comorbidity.
Findings on the relationship between frailty and sociodemographic variables, morbidity and disability, support previous studies, providing further evidence that although frailty seems to be a distinct geriatric concept, it also overlaps with other concepts.
衰弱一词用于描述健康不良结局风险较高的老年人。2001 年，Fried 等人提出了一个现在被广泛引用的定义，该定义表明衰弱是一种与日常生活活动（ADL）残疾和合并症相关但又不同的临床实体。衰弱状态根据以下五个特征中的任何三个特征的存在来评估：萎缩、虚弱、耐力差、缓慢和活动量低。本研究的目的是估计社区居住的老年人样本中衰弱的患病率，确定与衰弱相关的社会人口学和健康变量，并检查衰弱与合并症、ADL 残疾和 IADL 残疾之间的复杂关系。
本研究基于蒙特利尔未满足需求研究（MUNS）中 740 名社区居住老年人的横断面分析。使用 MUNS 中提供的措施来操作衰弱的五个特征。Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel 检验用于识别与衰弱相关的变量。使用比例评估衰弱、合并症和残疾之间的重叠。
总体而言，7.4%的人被归类为衰弱，49.7%的人处于衰弱前期，42.8%的人非衰弱。衰弱与年龄、性别、收入、教育程度、慢性疾病数量、ADL 残疾和 IADL 残疾有关。在被归类为衰弱的人中，29.1%的人在 ADL 中有残疾，92.7%的人在 IADL 中有残疾，81.8%的人有合并症。
关于衰弱与社会人口学变量、发病率和残疾之间关系的研究结果支持了以前的研究，进一步证明尽管衰弱似乎是一个独特的老年概念，但它也与其他概念重叠。
