Objective To investigate the prevalence and influencing factors of frailty among older people in Guangzhou city and to provide evidences for frailty management.
Methods Totally 1 217 older people were recruited with convenient sampling in two communities and one nursing home in Guangzhou city for a cross-sectional survey between August 2017 and April 2018. We adopted a face-to-face interview with the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe Frailty Instrument (SHARE-FI) and grip strength measurement to screen frailty. Socio-demographic and other relevant information of the participants were collected with a self-designed questionnaire.
Results Of all the participants, 10.3%, 30.7%, and 59.0% were assessed as being frail, pre-frail, and non-frail, respectively. The results of ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that female gender (odds ratio OR = 3.542), at elder age (OR = 3.51), with low income (OR = 1.465), living alone (OR = 3.404), being unable to take care of oneself (OR = 3.295), suffering from several chronic diseases (OR = 4.718), having multiple medication (OR = 2.309), with urinary incontinence (OR = 3.594), with depression (OR = 3.27), and with poor self-rated health (OR = 2.482) were the risk factors of frailty and having regular physical exercise (OR = 0.158) was a protective factor against frailty among the participants.
Conclusion Policymakers and healthcare providers should pay more attentions to frailty issue among elderly people in Guangzhou city and implement proper interventions specific to relevant factors in the population.
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