Cognitive function in Prefrail and frail community-dwelling older adults in China

Physical frailty, characterized by reduced physiologic complexity and ability to cope with stressors, is closely associated with cognitive impairment, which increases the risk of poor clinical outcomes. To better capture the association between frailty and cognitive impairment, a new construct, cognitive frailty, has been proposed. Cognitive frailty is a clinical condition characterized by the simultaneous presence of physical frailty and cognitive impairment. There is little evidence on the relationship between physical frailty and cognition, as well as cognitive frailty, in Chinese older adults. We aimed to elucidate whether physical frailty is associated with cognitive impairment in an older Chinese population.

Data were obtained from the China Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment Study. The sample comprised 3202 community-dwelling adults, aged 60 years and older, from seven Chinese cities. Physical frailty was assessed using a modified, four-item version of the Fried criteria, according to frailty phenotype. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

The prevalence of physical frailty, prefrailty, cognitive impairment, and cognitive frailty was 9.9, 33.9, 7.5, and 2.3%, respectively (weighted: 8.8, 33.8, 6.5, and 2.0%). The prevalence of the combination of prefrail/frail and cognitive impairment was 5.1% (weighted 4.5%). Frail participants performed worse on global cognition and all cognitive domains than robust and prefrail participants. The MMSE total score was positively correlated with walking speed and negatively correlated with age and frailty. A multivariate logistic regression revealed that after adjusting for age, gender, education level, living area, and chronic diseases, frailty, exhaustion, slowness, and inactivity were significantly associated with poor global cognition.

The standard prevalence of physical frailty, prefrailty, cognitive impairment, and cognitive frailty in community-dwelling older adults in China was 8.8, 33.8, 6.5, and 2.0%, respectively. Frailty, exhaustion, slowness, and inactivity were significantly associated with poor global cognition.