| Summary: | 碩士 === 長庚大學 === 醫務管理學系 === 106 === Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between frailty and self-rated negative health among community dwelling older adults in Taiwan.
Methods: We analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of people aged 65 years and over (n=2904) participating in the 2009 National Health Interview Survey in Taiwan. Self-rated health status was assessed by the question “In general, would you say that your health is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?” Individuals with a self-rated health status of fair or poor were considered to have negative health. Frailty was determined based on the Fatigue, Resistance, Ambulation, Illness, and Loss of weight（FRAIL）which was proposed by the International Association of Nutrition and Ageing (IANA). FRAIL scale scores range from 0 to 5 and classified as frail (3-5), pre-frail (1-2), and robust (0). We used the Pearson’s Chi-Square test to examine factors associated with self-rated negative health status among older adults. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between frailty and self-rated negative health for estimation of odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results: In the full model, those participants with frailty, aged between 65 and 74 years, less education levels, hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis were significantly more likely to have negative health than their counterparts.
Conclusion: After adjustment for other factors, being frail remained significantly associated with self-rated negative health among older adults. This suggests that frailty itself is independently associated with self-rated negative health among older adults. However, the underlying mechanism behind the association between frailty and self-rated negative health is unknown. Further study is needed to explore the prospective associations between frailty and self-rated negative health in older adults.
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