Prevalence of Frailty and Its Association with Depressive Symptoms among European Older Adults from 17 Countries: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to examine the association between frailty and depressive symptoms. Methods: Cross-sectional and five-year longitudinal study. Data were from the population-based Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) waves six (2015) and eight (2020). Frailty was assessed using the SHARE-Frailty Instrument. Fatigue, appetite, walking difficulties, and physical activity were self-reported, and grip strength was measured using a handgrip dynamometer. The EURO-D 12-item scale was used to measure depressive symptoms. Results: The sample comprised 25,771 older adults (56.2% female) with a mean age of 66.5 (95% CI 66.4, 66.6) years. The prevalence of frailty was 4.2% (95% CI 3.9, 4.4) in 2015 and 6.7% (95% CI 13.5, 14.3) in 2020. Among frail participants, 72.5% and 69.6% had depression in 2015 and 2020, respectively. Frailty was associated with depression over the 5 years. Those with pre-frailty and those with frailty in 2015 had 1.86 (95% CI 1.71, 2.01) and 2.46 (95% CI 2.14, 2.83) greater odds of having depressive symptoms in 2020. Conclusions: Frailty is a predictor of depression in older adults, and frail participants had greater odds of presenting depressive symptoms.

Association between Perceived Health-Related Quality of Life and Depression with Frailty in the FRASNET Study

“…In conclusion, perceptions of QoL, both physical and mental and subclinical depression are major contributors to frailty, with SF-36-PCS scores reflecting self-perceptions of QoL physical health, appearing to be protective against frailty. The results agree well with those of recent longitudinal studies [ 61 ] and suggest that the inclusion of simple psychological categorization in the assessment of older adults might have value in patient stratification. Pre-frail subjects represent a particularly interesting group for studies aimed at evaluating whether modifying the identified factors, which are possibly associated with molecular interventions proposed for modulating the inflammatory system, can influence the effective trajectory leading to frailty, as suggested by results in experimental systems [ 62 ].…”

Prevalence and risk factors of frailty among older family caregivers

“…Recognising pre-frailty and frailty is important since frailty is associated with higher mortality, depression, and a range of adverse outcomes, such as falls, among older people [14,42,43]. A previous study, which aimed to identify trajectories of depressive symptoms in FCs, showed that one-third of FCs experienced increasing depressive symptoms over 5 years [7].…”

Determining factors that maintain physical function or increase frailty using the Kihon checklist among community-dwelling older adults: a six-year longitudinal study in Agano, Japan

“…Falls in older adults lead to fractures of the vertebrae, hip joints, and even death [ 26 ]. Furthermore, house boundedness and depressed mood were also key independent factors [ 27 , 28 ]. In this study, being unable to turn to one’s family or friends for advice and feelings of helplessness in the last two weeks, including depressed mood, were found to be risk factors for the transition from robustness directly to frailty.…”

“…The finding of recovery in physical function is relevant when conducting appropriate interventions for frailty. Although some studies have evaluated every dimension of frailty, such as physical condition, house boundedness, and depressed mood, few reports have defined risk factors that consider items of KCL [ 22 , 23 , 26 – 28 ]. As a result, multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that “not going out more than once a week” was considered an independent risk factor for recovering from frailty.…”