Frailty as a Predictor of Adverse Outcomes among Spanish Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract

Spain is one of the European countries with the oldest populations. The prevalence of frailty among Spanish older people ranges from 8.4 to 29.4% and currently, is one of the most relevant public health challenges. The Tilburg Frailty indicator (TFI) has been widely used in the community and in healthcare settings for assessing frailty. The objective of this study is to evaluate the predictive performance of the TFI for several adverse outcomes among Spanish community-dwelling older adults. The predictive performance was tested through linear regression analyses and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. A total of 552 Spanish older adults composed the study sample. Participants were assessed at baseline and after 6 months. Main results showed that frailty was strongly and significantly correlated with disability, physical health, mental health and falls efficacy. The TFI score predicted most of these adverse outcomes. The ROC analyses confirmed the acceptable predictive performance of the total frailty. This study provides new evidence confirming that the TFI is a valid tool to predict several adverse outcomes in Spanish older adults, which may allow professionals to plan and activate health and social care resources to support frail patients’ needs.

Fear of falling as a mediator in the association between social frailty and health-related quality of life in community-dwelling older adults

“…However, family, friends, or community support can enhance an individual’s confidence to manage their fear of falling [ 32 , 33 ]. The cross-sectional data analysis results indicated that social frailty was correlated with FoF, and the longitudinal data analysis demonstrated that social frailty could significantly predict perceived fear of falls [ 34 ]. However, the association between social support or social interaction and FoF is inconclusive, and how social frailty simultaneously affects FoF and HrQoL remains to be seen.…”