ASSOCIATION OF SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC, PSYCHOSOCIAL AND FUNCTIONAL FACTORS WITH FRAILTY SYNDROME AMONG COMMUNITY-DWELLING ELDERLY IN KUALA NERUS, TERENGGANU

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Background: Frailty syndrome among the elderly is associated with an increased risk of disability, morbidity, and mortality as they aged. There were limited studies on frailty syndrome among the Malaysian elderlies, which were not widely discussed in various settings and factors. Therefore, the association of the factors with the frailty syndrome was still limited and not clearly revealed. This article reports the prevalence of frailty syndrome and its associations with the socio-demographic characteristics, psychosocial and functional status among the community-dwelling elderly in Kuala Nerus, Terengganu.

Materials and Methods: Out of the 279 (90% response-rate) elderly respondents, 118 male and 161 female were randomly selected and interviewed. Using the validated Fried’s phenotype, respondents were categorized as frail (≥3 criteria) or non-frail (≤2 criteria).

Result: The mean age of the respondents was 73.3 ± 6.1 years old. The prevalence of frailty syndrome was 18.3%. From the binary logistic regression, lower participation of the respondents in leisure activities [OR: 2.63; 95% CI: 1.015 – 6.804] and attending feast [OR: 3.99; 95% CI: 1.015 – 6.804]; have depressive symptoms [OR: 4.17; 95% CI: 1.367 – 12.740] and dependent to mobile [OR: 3.42; CI: 1.310 – 8.925] were significantly associated with frailty syndrome.

Conclusion: The understanding of the interactions between frailty syndrome and contributing factors might be significant in identifying the modifiable risk factors and gave an overview that can be used as the baseline data on frailty syndrome for the intervention program.

Keywords: Frailty syndrome, community-dwelling, socio-demographic, psychosocial, functional.