Epidemiology of frailty in elderly Japanese

• Main Authors: Atsumu Yuki, Rei Otsuka, Chikako Tange, Yukiko Nishita, Makiko Tomida, Fujiko Ando, Hiroshi Shimokata
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japanese Society of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine 2016-10-01
• Series: Journal of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine
• Subjects: nils-lsa; frailty phenotype; community-dwelling elderly
• Online Access: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jpfsm/5/4/5_301/_pdf/-char/en
• ISSN: 2186-8131; 2186-8123

A healthy elderly person may require nursing care after becoming frail, a condition characterized by slowness, weakness, exhaustion, low activity, and shrinking. Because few cohort studies have examined frailty in detail, the prevalence of frailty among the elderly in Japan is unclear. We examined the prevalence of frailty based on the frailty phenotype established by Fried using a large-scale cohort of randomly selected community-dwelling elderly in Japan. Participants included 871 elderly (446 men and 425 women) aged 65-91 years who participated in the sixth wave examination (July 2008 to July 2010) and seventh wave examination (July 2010 to July 2012) of the National Institute for Longevity Sciences - Longitudinal Study of Aging. The prevalence of shrinking, exhaustion, low activity, slowness, and weakness among the elderly participants was 10.2%, 38.6%, 21.1%, 11.4%, and 15.5%, respectively. The prevalence of frailty characterized by the limitations in 3 or more of these 5 domains was 8.5%. The prevalence of pre-frailty, characterized by limitations in 1 or 2 of 5 domains was 52.2%. Elderly who were diagnosed with frailty and pre-frailty included 3,086,000 people and 17,950,000 people, respectively. These data could contribute to the promotion of prevention and treatment strategies for frailty in Japan.