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Frailty trajectories and determinants in Chinese older adults: A longitudinal study
Jiaolan Du1, Min Zhang1, Jinping Zeng1
1Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
Objectives:
This study aimed to enrich the research on frailty trajectories by using FRAIL scale and frailty index (FI), and analyze the determinants of the different trajectories in older Chinese.
Methods:
2268 older adults from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey were included. The FRAIL scale was constructed from 5 items and FI was constructed from 39 deficits. Latent Class Trajectory Model was used to depict frailty trajectories. Lasso - logistic model was applied to exploration of influencing factors.
Results:
Four FRAIL trajectories and three FI trajectories were identified. Women, smoking, illiteracy, more than two chronic diseases, and poor instrumental activities of daily living (all p < 0.05) were associated with frailty trajectories, regardless of the frailty instrument employed.
Conclusions:
Frailty trajectories of older Chinese adults are diverse and they are influenced by different frailty measurement tools. Long-term assessment and management of frailty are recommended as routine care in community healthcare centers.
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