@article{ref1,
title="Frailty is a geriatric syndrome characterized by multiple impairments: a comprehensive approach is needed",
journal="Journal of frailty and aging",
year="2016",
author="Chen, L-K and Hwang, A-c and Liu, L-k and Lee, W-j and Peng, L-n",
volume="5",
number="4",
pages="208-213",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence of frailty and the associated multimorbidity and functional impairments among community-dwelling middle-aged and elderly people in Taiwan. <br><br>DESIGN: a cross-sectional study. SETTING: communities in I-Lan County of Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: 1839 community-dwelling people aged 50 years and older. INTERVENTION: None. MEASUREMENTS: Frailty defined by Fried's criteria, Charlson's comorbidity index (CCI), Functional Autonomy Measurement System (SMAF), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), Mini-Nutrition Assessment (MNA), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Short Form-12 quality of life questionnaire. <br><br>RESULTS: Overall, 1839 subjects (mean age: 63.9±9.3 years, 47.5% males) participated in this study and men were more likely to have higher educational level, more smoking and alcohol drinking habit. The prevalence of frailty was 6.8% in this study, while pre-frailty was 40.5% and 53.7% of all participants were robust. Compared to subjects with different frailty status, age, education year, alcohol drinking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, CCI, walking speed, handgrip strength, score of SMAF, CES-D, MNA, MMSE, quality of life were significantly different between groups (P all< 0.05). Older age, poorer physical function, poorer cognitive function, poorer nutritional status, more depressive symptoms, higher CCI and poorer quality of life were all independently associated with frailty. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Frailty was not simply a geriatric syndrome, but the combination of multiple geriatric syndromes. Further study is needed to evaluate the clinical benefits of intervention programs for community-dwelling middle-aged and older people to reverse frailty and its associated functional impairments.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2260-1341",
doi="10.14283/jfa.2016.109",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2016.109"
}