Association between Self-Reported Health Status and Frailty in Community-Dwelling Elderly

The phenotype of frailty proposed by Fried et al. has been related with increased vulnerability for the development of adverse health-related outcomes. However, this phenotype is not often used in daily clinical practice. On the other hand, poor self-reported health status (SRHS) has been associated with similar adverse health-related outcomes.

To determine the association between poor SRHS and frailty.

Cross-sectional study of 927 community-dwelling elderly aged 70 and older, participating in the Mexican Study of Nutritional and Psychosocial Markers of Frailty.

SRHS was established by the question "How do you rate your health status in general?" Frailty was defined according to the phenotype proposed by Fried et al. The association between SRHS and frailty was determined through the construction of multinomial logistic regression models. Final analyses were adjusted by socio-demographic and health covariates, including depressive symptoms. Also, agreement between SRHS and the phenotype of frailty was explored.

Prevalence of frailty was 14.1%, and 4.4% of participants rated their health status as "poor". The unadjusted regression analyses demonstrated that fair and poor SRHS were significantly associated with prefrail and frail status. After adjustment for multiple covariates, the association remained statistically significant. However, in the final adjustment for depressive symptoms, only the association between poor SRHS and frail status continued to be statistically significant. Fair agreement between poor SRHS and frail status was also found.

Poor SRHS shares common correlates as well as health-related adverse outcomes with frailty syndrome, and remains associated with it even when possible confounders are taken into account. Therefore, poor SRHS could be further explored as an option for frailty syndrome screening.