Graduate Program in Gerontology, School of Medical Sciences, UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2021 Jan-Feb;92:104212. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2020.104212. Epub 2020 Aug 1.
Studies on frailty frequently only include older persons. The mapping of factors related to this syndrome and negative outcomes associated with it, also in middle age, may assist in health strategies to each age group.
To investigate social and health factors related to the frailty phenotype and to analyze the probabilistic relationships between frailty, falls and hospitalization in middle-aged and older persons.
This is a cross-sectional study using data for 4442 middle-aged (50-59 years) and older participants (60 years or older) from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil) 2015 and 2016. Bayesian network models were estimated with the score-based hill-climbing algorithm to identify factors associated with frailty, falls and hospitalization.
Mean age was 63.7 years, and prevalence of frailty was 8.5 % and 11.9 % among middle-aged and older participants, respectively. In the former, the probability of frailty increased when "poor" self-rated memory was considered in the model; and in the latter, the probability of frailty was greatest among individuals who did not participate socially and had the lowest level of education. In both age groups, frailty was an important factor that influenced the probability of negative health outcomes such as falls and hospitalization. However, this result depended on combinations of health factors in each sample.
This study has identified potential vulnerabilities that should be considered when undertaking a comprehensive assessment of middle-aged and older persons and developing suitable health strategies for each of these phases of life.
衰弱研究通常仅包括老年人。对与该综合征相关的因素及其与负面结果的关系进行研究，也可对中年人群的健康策略提供帮助。
探讨与衰弱表型相关的社会和健康因素，并分析中年和老年人衰弱、跌倒和住院之间的概率关系。
这是一项横断面研究，使用了巴西老龄化纵向研究（ELSI-Brazil）2015 年和 2016 年的 4442 名中年（50-59 岁）和老年（60 岁及以上）参与者的数据。采用基于评分的爬山算法估计贝叶斯网络模型，以识别与衰弱、跌倒和住院相关的因素。
平均年龄为 63.7 岁，中年和老年参与者的衰弱患病率分别为 8.5%和 11.9%。在前者中，当将“较差”的自我评估记忆纳入模型时，衰弱的可能性增加；在后者中，最不可能参与社交活动且教育程度最低的人群中衰弱的可能性最大。在这两个年龄组中，衰弱是影响跌倒和住院等负面健康结果概率的重要因素。然而，这一结果取决于每个样本中健康因素的组合。
本研究确定了潜在的脆弱性，在对中年和老年人进行全面评估以及为生命的每个阶段制定适当的健康策略时应考虑这些脆弱性。
