151. PROVIDING SOCIAL SUPPORTS CAN REDUCE MORTALITY RISK AMONG PRE-FRAIL OLDER ADULTS IN TAIWAN
- Author
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Chih-Jung Yeh, Mel S. Lee, C.-C. Liao, and Shu-Hsin Lee
- Subjects
Gerontology ,Abstracts ,Health (social science) ,business.industry ,health care facilities, manpower, and services ,Frail Older Adults ,Medicine ,Life-span and Life-course Studies ,business ,Health Professions (miscellaneous) ,human activities - Abstract
Objective: To determine the association of providing or receiving social support on mortality risk among the elderly with pre-frailty or frailty. Method: In this notional longitudinal study, data were retrieved from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (TLSA) from 1996 to 2007. Data for 1492 males and 1177 females (total 2669) aged ≥67 years were collected. Participants were divided into three groups: no frail older adults, pre-frail older adults and frail older adults. These elderly received social supports, and they also actively provided social supports to others. The study was examined using Cox regression analysis to evaluate the association between providing or receiving social support on mortality of pre-frail or frail older adults after adjusting several covariates. Results: Results showed the average age of these participants was 73.8 (SD=5.5) years, and more than half of the participants were male (55.9%). The number and percentage of frail elderly, pre-frail elderly and frail elderly groups were 402(16.9%), 1501(63.1%) and 474(19.9%) respectively. Final results of the multivariate Cox regression analysis showed a significant association between providing social supports with lower mortality rates among the pre-frail older adults after adjusting several covariates. [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.886; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.814–0.964; p = 0.005]. Conclusion: Providing social support to others may prolong life expectancy of the pre-frail older adults.
- Published
- 2017