Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, National University Hospital, 1E Kent Ridge Road, Singapore, 119228, Singapore.
Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Qual Life Res. 2020 Sep;29(9):2375-2381. doi: 10.1007/s11136-020-02493-7. Epub 2020 Apr 6.
Social isolation in older adults is a major public health problem and associated with increased morbidity and mortality. There are limited data on the association between social isolation and physical function including gait speed. Hence, this study is to determine the prevalence of social isolation and its association with gait speed, frailty, cognition, depression and comorbidities amongst community-dwelling older adults.
Social isolation, depression, frailty and perceived general health were assessed using 6-item Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS-6), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), FRAIL scale and EuroQol EQ-5D-5L questionnaire which includes EQ Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS), respectively. Cognition was assessed using the Chinese Mini Mental State Examination (cMMSE), while physical performance test included gait speed and short physical performance battery test. Binary logistic regression was performed to determine the influence of socio-demographic, medical, functional and cognitive variables on social isolation.
Out of 202 participants, 27.7% were robust, 66.8% of participants were pre-frail, and 5.4% of participants were frail. Almost half (45.5%, n = 92) of the participants were found to be at risk of social isolation. A poor social network was negatively associated with mean gait speed (OR = 0.674, CI 0.464-0.979, p = 0.039), EQ-VAS (OR = 0.561, CI 0.390-0.806, p < 0.01) and cMMSE (OR = 0.630, 95% CI 0.413-0.960, p = 0.032).
Almost half of older adults in the community are at risk of social isolation with a very significant association with gait speed, cMMSE and EQ-VAS scores.
老年人的社会隔离是一个主要的公共卫生问题，与发病率和死亡率的增加有关。关于社会隔离与包括步态速度在内的身体功能之间的关系，数据有限。因此，本研究旨在确定社区居住的老年人中社会隔离的流行率及其与步态速度、虚弱、认知、抑郁和合并症的关系。
使用 6 项卢本社会网络量表（LSNS-6）、老年抑郁量表（GDS）、脆弱性量表和欧洲五维健康量表（EQ-5D-5L）问卷评估社会隔离、抑郁、虚弱和感知一般健康状况，其中包括 EQ 视觉模拟量表（EQ-VAS）。认知评估采用中国简易精神状态检查表（cMMSE），身体表现测试包括步态速度和简短身体表现电池测试。进行二元逻辑回归分析，以确定社会人口统计学、医学、功能和认知变量对社会隔离的影响。
在 202 名参与者中，27.7%的人身体健壮，66.8%的人处于脆弱前期，5.4%的人身体虚弱。几乎一半（45.5%，n=92）的参与者有社会隔离的风险。不良的社交网络与平均步态速度呈负相关（OR=0.674，CI 0.464-0.979，p=0.039）、EQ-VAS（OR=0.561，CI 0.390-0.806，p<0.01）和 cMMSE（OR=0.630，95%CI 0.413-0.960，p=0.032）。
社区中近一半的老年人存在社会隔离的风险，与步态速度、cMMSE 和 EQ-VAS 评分有非常显著的关系。
