Frailty profile in Brazilian older adults: ELSI-Brazil

Andrade, Juliana Mara; Duarte, Yeda Aparecida de Oliveira; Alves, Luciana Correia; Andrade, Flávia Cristina Drumond; Souza Junior, Paulo Roberto Borges de; Lima-Costa, Maria Fernanda; Andrade, Fabíola Bof de

doi:10.11606/S1518-8787.2018052000616

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Supplement ELSI-Brazil, Original Article • Rev. Saúde Pública 52 (Suppl 2) • 2018 • https://doi.org/10.11606/S1518-8787.2018052000616 copy

Frailty profile in Brazilian older adults: ELSI-Brazil

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the prevalence of frailty and to evaluate the associated factors in the non-institutionalized Brazilian population aged 50 years or older.

METHODS

The analyses were conducted in 8,556 participants of the baseline survey of the Longitudinal Study of Health of the Brazilian Elderly (ELSI-Brazil) conducted in 2015 and 2016. Frailty was defined based on five characteristics: weight loss, weakness, slowness, exhaustion and low level of physical activity. Participants with three or more characteristics were classified as frail. A Poisson regression model was used to examine the association between frailty and sociodemographic and health factors.

RESULTS

The prevalence of frailty was 9.0% (95%CI 8.0–10.1) among participants aged 50 years or over. Among the older adults aged 60 or over, the prevalence was 13.5% (95%CI 11.9–15.3) and 16.2% (95%CI 14.3–18.3) among those 65 aged years or over. Factors associated with higher prevalence of frailty were low schooling, residence without a partner, health conditions (poor self-rated health and two or more chronic diseases) and limitation to perform basic activities of daily living.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of frailty among Brazilians aged 65 years or older is similar to their European counterparts. Poor health conditions, functional limitation and low schooling emerge as the factors most strongly associated with the frailty in this population.

Aged; Aging; Health Status; Socioeconomic Factors; Health Surveys

Variable	%	95%CI^a
Age (years)
50–59	48.7	44.6–52.8
60–69	29.8	27.9–31.7
70 or older	21.5	19.0–24.3
Female	53.4	50.4–56.4
Lives with a partner	64.8	61.8–67.6
Education (years of schooling)
0–3	31.8	28.5–35.2
4–7	31.6	29.0–34.2
8–11	28.3	25.8–31.0
12 or more	8.3	7.2–9.6
Perceived income sufficiency
Always enough	33.0	30.5–35.7
Sometimes it’s enough	26.1	24.4–27.8
Never enough	40.9	37.7–44.2
Current smoker	17.0	15.6–18.5
Two or more chronic diseases^b	35.9	34.0–37.8
Difficulty performing BADL^c
No	85.5	84.1–86.7
Yes	14.5	13.3–15.9
Self-rated health
Good	43.9	41.3–46.5
Regular	44.7	42.8–46.7
Poor	11.4	10.2–12.7
Frailty components
Weight loss in the last 12 months	7.4	6.6–8.3
Weakness	22.6	20.7–24.5
Low gait speed	20.5	18.2–23.1
Exhaustion	28.6	26.5–30.8
Low physical activity	19.8	17.8–21.9
At least 3 of the above listed	9.0	8.0–10.1

Variable	Prevalence		Prevalence ratio

	%	95%CI	PR^d	95%CI^e
Age (years)
50–59	4.3	3.7–5.1	1
60–69	8.1	6.9–9.5	1.87	1.49–2.34^b
70 or older	20.9	18.1–24.0	4.82	3.99–5.83^b
Gender
Male	8.5	7.3–9.8	1
Female	9.5	8.2–11.0	1.12	0.94–1.34
Lives with a partner
No	11.6	10.2–13.0	1
Yes	7.6	6.7–8.7	0.66	0.59–0.74^b
Education (years of schooling)
0–3	14.5	12.4–16.8	1
4–7	8.4	7.3–9.7	0.58	0.47–0.71^b
8–11	5.3	4.0–6.9	0.36	0.28–0.47^b
12 or more	3.3	1.8–6.1	0.23	0.13–0.43^b
Perceived income sufficiency
Always enough	7.8	6.4–9.4	1
Sometimes it’s enough	8.3	6.9–10.0	1.07	0.84–1.37
Never enough	10.5	9.2–11.9	1.35	1.14–1.61^c
Current smoker
No	9.0	7.9–10.2	1
Yes	9.2	7.8–10.8	1.03	0.87–1.21
Self-rated health
Good	4.4	3.4–5.5	1
Regular	9.0	7.9–10.2	2.07	1.64–2.61^a
Poor	27.0	24.1–30.2	6.21	5.03–7.67^a
Number of chronic diseases^f
One or none	5.8	4.7–7.2	1
Two or more	14.7	13.2–16.5	2.54	2.05–3.15^a
Difficulty performing BADL^g
No	5.8	4.9–6.8	1
Yes	28.1	25.2–31.1	4.87	4.06–5.83^a

Variable	Adjusted PR^d	95%CI^e
Age (years)
50–59	1
60–69	1.69	1.37–2.09^a
70 or older	3.49	2.82–4.32^a
Lives with a partner
No	1
Yes	0.78	0.67–0.91^b
Education (years of schooling)
0–3	1
4–7	0.80	0.66–0.97^c
8–11	0.72	0.55–0.93^c
12 or more	0.51	0.28–0.93^c
Self-rated health
Good	1
Regular	1.65	1.34–2.05^a
Poor	3.17	2.56–3.93^a
Number of chronic diseases^f
Uma ou none	1
Two or more	1.34	1.08–1.66^b
Difficulty performing BADL^g
No	1
Yes	2.68	2.23–3.22^a

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[1] Correspondence: Fabíola Bof de Andrade. Av. Augusto de Lima, 1715 Barro Preto 30190-002 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil Email: fabiola.andrade@minas.fiocruz.br