Multi-dimensional frailty and its risk factors among older residents in long-term care facilities in Shanghai, China.
Huihui Wang, Jing Wang, Boqin Xie and 2 others
PMID 34307778WHAT IT FOUND
Depressive symptoms, lower grip strength, poorer cognition, and less activity participation were associated with frailty in older long-term care residents.
Screen for these, not daily task ability alone.
Key findings
01Older residents had moderate overall frailty, scoring 55.02 ± 11.75 on a 25–100 scale.
02Depressive symptoms were positively associated with overall frailty and each frailty domain (P < 0.001).
03Actual activity participation was negatively associated with overall (P < 0.001), physiological (P < 0.05), and social frailty (P < 0.001), while ADL ability was not significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Convenience sampling from 9 long-term care facilities in Shanghai may not represent older residents in other places. Residents with advanced dementia, serious body shape abnormalities, limb loss or dysfunction, or inability to communicate were excluded, so results may not apply to people with severe physical or cognitive impairment. The study measured frailty and factors at one time point, so it cannot show that any factor caused frailty. There is no internationally agreed definition of frailty, and the study used an adapted Chinese version of the Tilburg Frailty Indicator.
Declared interests
Funded by the Fudan University Nursing Research Foundation (Fund #FNF201706). The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these associations as proof that treating depression or adding activities will reduce frailty. This was a cross-sectional survey, and it did not test an intervention.