Frailty and incidence of activities of daily living disability among older Mexican Americans.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between frailty status and incidence of disability among non-disabled older Mexican Americans. DESIGN: A 10-year prospective cohort study. SUBJECTS: A total of 1645 non-institutionalized Mexican Americans aged 67 years and older from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly (H-EPESE), who reported no limitation in activities of daily living at baseline. METHODS: Frailty was defined as meeting 3 or more of the following components: (i) unintentional weight loss of > 2.26 kg; (ii) weakness (lowest 20% in hand grip strength); (iii) self-reported exhaustion; (iv) slow walking speed; and (v) low physical activity level. Socio-demographic factors, Mini Mental State Examination, medical conditions, body mass index, and self-reported activities of daily living were obtained. RESULTS: Of the 1645 non-disabled subjects at baseline, 820 (50%) were not frail, 749 (45.7%) were pre-frail, and 71 (4.3%) were frail. The hazard ratio of activities of daily living disability at 10-year follow-up for pre-frail subjects was 1.32 (95% confidence interval 1.10-1.58) and 2.42 (95% confidence interval 70-3.46) for frail subjects compared with not frail subjects. This association remained statistically significant after controlling for potential confounding factors at baseline. CONCLUSION: Pre-frail and frail status in older Mexican Americans was associated with an increased risk of activities of daily living disability over a 10-year period among non-disabled subjects.

Author information

Author/s: Al Snih, Soham (S); Graham, James E (JE); Ray, Laura A (LA); Samper-Ternent, Rafael (R); Markides, Kyriakos S (KS); Ottenbacher, Kenneth J (KJ);

Affiliation: Division of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0460, USA. soalsnih(-atsign-)utmb.edu

Grants: 1P50CA105631-02 (Agency:NCI NIH HHS) ; AG10939 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; AG17638 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; K12HD052023 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Journal of rehabilitation medicine : official journal of the UEMS European Board of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (J Rehabil Med), published in Sweden. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Nov; vol 41 (issue 11) : pp 892-7

Dates: Created 2009/10/20; Completed 2009/10/23;

PMID: 19841840, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/23/2009, IMS Date: )

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