Alkhodary Ahmed Abdelmajed, Aljunid Syed Mohamed, Ismail Aniza, Nur Amrizal Muhammad, Shahar Suzana
International Centre for Casemix and Clinical Coding, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia.
Ministry of Health, Department of Analysis and Decision Support, Gaza Governorates, Al Remal, Gaza 0101, Palestine.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Mar 13;19(6):3361. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063361.
Cognitive frailty (CF) as a potential risk factor for dementia, functional disability, poor quality of life, and mortality. The aim of this study was to explore the health care-related utilization and out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures, sociodemographic characteristics, and comorbidities among elderly Malaysians with CF.
A cross-sectional study targeting elderly Malaysian aged ≥65 years was conducted. The study included all participants of the fourth phase of the Malaysian representative Long-Term-Research-Grant-Scheme Towards-Useful-Aging (LRGS-TUA) community-based study. A structured and validated interview questionnaire was used.
In total, 1006 elderly were interviewed, with a 66.18% response rate. Only 730 respondents met the inclusion criteria. Of the eligible respondents, the CF prevalence was 4.5%. Around 60.6% of the participants with CF had utilized outpatient care at government clinics within the past 6 months. The estimated mean total OOP payments for CF during the past 6 months was 84 Malaysian Ringgit (RM) (SD 96.0).
CF among elderly Malaysians is within the internationally recognized range of prevalence. The OOP payments for seeking health care among CF elderly are not different from that of other elderly categories. There is a high possibility of underutilization of the health care services of CF cases while they are still needy.
认知衰弱（CF）作为痴呆、功能残疾、生活质量差和死亡率的潜在风险因素。本研究的目的是探讨马来西亚患有CF的老年人的医疗保健相关利用情况和自付费用（OOP）、社会人口学特征以及合并症。
针对年龄≥65岁的马来西亚老年人进行了一项横断面研究。该研究纳入了马来西亚具有代表性的基于社区的长期研究资助计划促进健康老龄化（LRGS-TUA）第四阶段的所有参与者。使用了一份经过结构化和验证的访谈问卷。
总共对1006名老年人进行了访谈，回复率为66.18%。只有730名受访者符合纳入标准。在符合条件的受访者中，CF患病率为4.5%。在过去6个月中，约60.6%的CF参与者在政府诊所接受了门诊治疗。过去6个月中CF的估计平均总自付费用为84马来西亚林吉特（RM）（标准差96.0）。
马来西亚老年人中的CF患病率在国际公认范围内。CF老年人寻求医疗保健的自付费用与其他老年人群别没有差异。CF患者在仍有需求时很有可能未充分利用医疗保健服务。
