Factors associated with frailty in community-dwelling elderly population. A cross-sectional study

Background Frailty is a major public health problem. Designing effective preventive measures requires an understanding of frailty mechanisms and risk factors. Objective To identify the main social, clinical and analytical factors associated with frailty. Methods An observational cross-sectional study of community-dwelling individuals aged 75 years and older was performed. Results One hundred and seventy men and 154 women were recruited (mean age 80.1 years). Frailty was associated with age, female sex, educational level, certain comorbidities (osteoarthritis, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, depression, cancer, diabetes, dyspepsia and hypertension), geriatric syndromes, previous falls, pain, number of medications, anorexia, nutritional status, physical activity, muscle mass, obesity, anaemia, kidney function and C-reactive protein. Frailty was not associated with serum levels of ghrelin, testosterone, insulin or IGF-1. Conclusions Factors identified as associated with frailty may alert healthcare professionals and help them to identify subjects at risk fragilization. Good control over underlying diseases and pain, rationalizing use of medications, optimizing nutritional status and body weight, promoting physical activity and improving social support may contribute to preventing or even reverting frailty. However, these hypotheses need to be tested.