Researchers: Debbie Rand¹, Shelley Sternberg², Netta Bentur¹, Tzvi Buckman³

Background: Frailty is recognized as a clinical syndrome of increased vulnerability to adverse outcomes as a result of a decline in physiological reserve of older adults. The relationship between frailty and independence in daily living, participation in the community and cognition is not clear.

Objectives: 1. To estimate the prevalence of frailty among community-dwelling older adults and to assess if frailty is related to decline independence in daily living and participation.
2. To assess the relationship between frailty to decline in cognitive and executive functioning and limitations in participation in the community.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in two stages among community-dwellers aged 75+years old who are members of Maccabi Healthcare. At the first stage, a phone interview was conducted among 1,571 older adults, using the Vulnerable Elders Survey-13, (a simple function-based screening tool for frailty) and at the second stage, face-to-face interview was conducted with 121 people from the first stage, using PRISMA-7 (self-report frailty questionnaire), grip strength, 2 cognitive assessment tools, functional measure for ADL and IADL, and tool for assessment of participation.

Findings: Stage-1: Mean age was 80.0 (4.5) years, 50% were men. 39.2% of the older adults were identified as frail and they had significantly lower levels of independence and participation compared to the non-frail (p<.001).
Stage-2: 32% of the older adults were identified as frail and they had significantly lower levels of functioning in daily living, participation, and cognition compared to the non-frail (p<.001).

Conclusions: Frailty has a negative impact on daily living and participation of older adults. Since frailty might be reversible in its early stages, screening for frailty should be considered in older adults. There is a need to increase awareness of frailty and its consequences among community professionals, and to improve its identification and treatment.

Research end date: 09/2019