The related factors of frailty risk in Japanese elderly women

This study was to determine the level of frailty risk and to clarify its related factors among the community-dwelling Japanese elderly women. The participants were 120 (aged 73.2±4.3) elderly women who lived in Himeji City, Hyogo, Japan. We distributed a questionnaire including age, family structure, self-rated health, short version of Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), lifestyle behaviors (hobbies, gardening, walking, sports activities etc.), and frailty checklist (homeboundedness, falls and poor nutrition), and also measured height, body weight, body mass index and physical fitness tests (grip strength, walking speed, standing on one leg with eyes open). We carried out a survey in November and December 2010. Selected variables were compared after dividing the participants into “Frailty high risk group (HR)” and “low risk group (LR)”. The number of “HR” was 19 (15.8%). HR had significantly higher “age” (P<0.05) and “GDS score” (P<0.01), and lower frequency of “walking” and shorter time of “standing on one leg with eyes open” (P<0.05, respectively) than those of LR. From the results of multiple logistic regression analysis using the step-wise method, there was a significant relationship between HR and high score of GDS (Odds ratio: 1.239, 95%CI: 1.029–1.492) and low frequency of walking (Odds ratio: 3.405, 95%CI: 1.116–10.389), adjusted for age and standing on one leg with eyes open. This study found that walking activity and mental health status were predictive of frailty risk in the community-dwelling elderly women and that these associations were independent of related factors.