Low grip strength and gait speed as markers of dependence regarding basic activities of daily living: the FIBRA study.

Objective: Marincolo et al. showed that older adults without limitations in basic activities of daily living at baseline presented with an 11.7% concomitant presence of functional dependence, slow gait speed, and low muscle strength at follow-up.

Frailty and functional status among older adults with cognitive impairment: data from the second wave of the FIBRA study.

Unlabelled: Frailty is defined as a recognizable state of increased vulnerability resulting from age-associated decline of function in various physiological systems, such that the ability to deal with acute or everyday stressors is compromised.

Objective: The aim of the study was to characterize the sample of older adults with cognitive impairment, according to the frailty status indirectly assessed by family members, other clinical and sociodemographic variables; and to assess the overlap of clinical conditions evaluated in this sample with cognitive impairment.

Methods: Data were extracted from the follow-up database of the Frailty in Brazilian Older Adults (FIBRA) study (2016-2017).

Higher purpose in life and education were associated with better cognition among older adults.

Background:  With aging, some cognitive abilities change because of neurobiological processes. Cognition may also be influenced by psychosocial aspects.

Objective:  To describe the relationship between a measure of neuroticism, depression symptoms, purpose in life, and cognitive performance in community-dwelling older adults.

Relationship between chronic pain, depressive symptoms, and functional disability in community-dwelling older adults: mediating role of frailty.

Background: Borim et al. showed that older adults with chronic pain exhibited more depressive symptoms and frailty components. Depressive symptoms were associated with more frailty components, and those with more depressive symptoms and frailty faced greater limitations in IADL performance.

[Loneliness and its association with sociodemographic and health indicators in Brazilian adults and older adults: ELSI-Brazil].

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of loneliness and its associations with sociodemographic and health indicators in a nationally representative sample of Brazilian adults and older adults. Data from the baseline (2015-2016) of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil) were analyzed, and participants with complete information on the variables of interest (n = 7,957) were included. Loneliness was the outcome variable, which was based on the question "How often do you feel alone or lonely: always, sometimes, or never?" Independent variables included sociodemographic indicators and health behaviors and conditions.

[Influence of multimorbidity patterns on the activities in the day-to-day lives of the elderly: nine-year follow-up of the Fibra Study].

The scope of this article was to evaluate the influence of multimorbidity and associated effects on the activities in the day-to-day lives of community-dwelling elderly individuals. It involved a cohort study with data from the FIBRA Study, the baseline (2008-2009) and follow-up (2016-2017). The basic activities in daily living (ADL) were evaluated using Katz's index, and the chronic diseases were classified as: (1) multimorbidity and multimorbidity patterns; (2) cardiopulmonary; (3) vascular-metabolic; and (4) mental-musculoskeletal.

Cognitive Impairment Predicts Sarcopenia 9 Years Later among Older Adults.

Objective: To assess the longitudinal association between cognitive impairment and sarcopenia in a sample of Brazilian community-dwelling older adults.

Design: Nine-year observational prospective study.

Setting And Participants: A total of 521 community-dwelling older adults from 2 Brazilian sites of the Frailty in Brazilian Older Adults (FIBRA in Portuguese) study.

Weight loss severity and functional decline among the oldest old in a middle-income country: The FIBRA study longitudinal findings.

Background And Aims: Nutritional status is a key modifiable risk factor associated with disability, and further evidence suggests that weight change is also linked to this adverse outcome. Thus, this study aims to evaluate weight loss severity and functional decline in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) in a seven-year period among a sample of Brazilian oldest-old adults.

Methods: Longitudinal prospective study using data from the FIBRA study (Frailty in Older Brazilians), a population-based investigation carried out in 2008/2009, with follow-up data collected in 2016/2017 from participants who were 80 years and older in the follow-up in Campinas, Brazil.

Self-assessed masticatory function and frailty in Brazilian older adults: the FIBRA Study.

Objetive: To investigate the relationship between the masticatory function and the frailty of older people.

Methods: Exploratory cross-sectional study using secondary data from the FIBRA Project on the frailty conditions of older people living in urban areas of six Brazilian municipalities, from 2008 to 2009. The population consisted of older adults aged 65 and over with no cognitive impairment.

Prevalence of chronic diseases in octogenarians: data from the National Health Survey 2019.

This article aims to estimate the prevalence of chronic diseases/conditions in octogenarians according to sex, age groups and private health insurance, and its relationship with difficulty in performing usual activities. Cross-sectional population-based study with elderly data (n = 6,098) from the National Health Survey (PNS) 2019. Prevalences and 95% confidence intervals were estimated.

Depressive symptoms, symptoms of insomnia and stressful events in hypertensive older adults: Cross-sectional study.

Objectives: the aim of this study was to determine whether symptoms of insomnia and intensity of stressful life events are independently associated with depressive symptoms in community-dwelling hypertensive older adults.

Methods: this was an observational cross-sectional study. Participants were 438 older adults with arterial hypertension who completed questionnaires about depressive symptoms, stressful events, self-reported symptoms of insomnia and socio-demographic characteristics.

Stressful events, depressive symptoms, and frailty associated to older adults' survival and mortality.

This study analyzed factors associated with survival and mortality risk of community-dwelling older adults, considering the intensity of stressful life events, depressive symptoms, insomnia, frailty, multimorbidity, and sociodemographic factors. This is a longitudinal study on survival of older adults interviewed between 2008-2009, with follow-up after 8 years. Survival and mortality risks were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier curve, Log Rank test, and Cox proportional-hazards model (p < 0.

Relationships between self-reported dyspnea, health conditions and frailty among Brazilian community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional study.

Context: Dyspnea is a symptom present in several chronic diseases commonly seen among older adults. Since individuals with dyspnea tend to stay at rest, with consequently reduced levels of physical activity, they are likely to be at greater risk of developing frailty, especially at older ages.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional study at community level, Brazil.

Correction: Normative reference values of handgrip strength for Brazilian older people aged 65 to 90 years: Evidence from the multicenter Fibra‑BR study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Eating Behavior of Older Adults with and Without Diabetes: The Vigitel Survey, Brazil, 2016.

Background: A healthy diet is a protection factor against type 2 diabetes and plays an important role in the treatment of the disease, as well as associated comorbidities.

Objective: Characterize the eating habits of older adults (≥ 65 years) with and without diabetes residing in capital cities and the Federal District of Brazil.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the Surveillance of Risk and Protection Factors for Chronic Diseases Through a Telephone Survey (Vigitel, 2016).

Risk of all-cause mortality and its association with health status in a cohort of community-dwelling older people: FIBRA study.

This article aims to estimate the risk of death according to sociodemographic characteristics, chronic diseases, frailty, functional capacity, and social participation in older people as well as determine the median time of death in relation to health status and social participation. A retrospective longitudinal study was conducted with older people (≥65 years) in 2008-09 and 2016-17 in the city of Campinas and the subdistrict of Ermelino Matarazzo in the city of São Paulo. Face-to-face interviews were conducted at community centers and the participants' homes.

How Do the Factors Associated With Frailty Change With Sex? An Exploratory Network Analysis.

Background: It is important to study multiple social, physical, and psychosocial factors associated with frailty in populations characterized by social and health disparities, such as men and women.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional population-based study with older adults 65 years or older from the FIBRA (Frailty in Brazilian Older Adults) 2008-2009 study. We carried out a comparative analysis of the factors associated with the frailty phenotype in older men (N = 706) and women (N = 1 251) using networks based on mixed graphical models according to sex.

Number of ideas in spontaneous speech predicts cognitive impairment and frailty in community-dwelling older adults nine years later.

Objective: To investigate the associations between linguistic parameters in spontaneous speech at baseline and cognitive impairment and frailty nine years later.

Methods: A prospective analysis was carried out on data of the Frailty in Brazilian Older People Study (FIBRA) Study, a population-based study on frailty. From a probabilistic sample of 384 individuals aged 65 and older at baseline (2008-2009), 124 aged 73 years and older at follow-up were selected, as they had scored above the cutoff values of cognitive screening for dementia adjusted by years of schooling at baseline and had answered to the question and had no frailty at baseline.

Difficulty in taking medication and stroke among older adults with systemic arterial hypertension: the Fibra Study.

This article aims to investigate whether difficulty in taking medication is associated with stroke among older adults with Systemic Arterial Hypertension (SAH) and to explore their association with living arrangements. Cross-sectional study was based on 3,502 older adults with SAH from the four universities pole of Frailty in Brazilian Older People (Fibra) Study, Brazil, including 14 municipalities of the five Brazilian regions. We used the medical diagnosis of stroke and difficulty in taking medications (self-reported difficulty and financial difficulty affording prescribed medications).

Impact of functional capacity on change in self-rated health among older adults in a nine-year longitudinal study.

The aims of the present study were to estimate the frequency of change in self-rated health (SRH) among community-dwelling older adults, between two measures taken at a 9-year interval; and determine factors associated with a decline and an improvement in SRH, in relation to aspects of physical/emotional health and subjective wellbeing. Data were derived from a community-based study on frailty among Brazilian elderly. Associations were investigated using Pearson's chi-square test and relative risk ratios were estimated using multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Psychometric study of the Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC) Short Scale translated to Portuguese, applied to Brazilian older adults.

Unlabelled: The concept Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC) is defined as a person's awareness that their behavior, level of physical, cognitive and social performance, and ways of experiencing life have changed as a consequence of having grown older, and not because of disease.

Objective: A psychometric study investigating evidence of construct validity and internal consistency of the Portuguese version of the AARC Short Scale was carried out.

Method: A convenience sample of 387 individuals aged≥60 years with no deficit suggestive of dementia were recruited at venues frequented by older persons and at households.

Three definitions of probable sarcopenia and associations with falls and functional disability among community-dwelling older adults.

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of probable sarcopenia according to 3 different definitions ("strength, assistance with walking, rise from a chair, climb stairs, falls"- SARC-F score, low grip strength, and the guidelines indicated by the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People 2 - EWGSOP2) and assess the association of probable sarcopenia with functional disability and falls among community-dwelling older adults.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with 419 older adults. Probable sarcopenia was assessed by 3 definitions: a SARC-F ≥ 4, low grip strength (< 27 kg for men and < 16 kg for women), and the EWGSOP2 criteria.

Probable sarcopenia is associated with cognitive impairment among community-dwelling older adults: results from the FIBRA study.

Background: The link between sarcopenia and cognitive impairment has not yet been thoroughly evaluated, especially among older adults.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between probable sarcopenia and cognitive impairment among community-dwelling older adults in two Brazilian cities.

Methods: Probable sarcopenia was assessed using the EWGSOP2 (2018) criteria.

Normative reference values of handgrip strength for Brazilian older people aged 65 to 90 years: Evidence from the multicenter Fibra‑BR study.

Background: Handgrip strength (HGS) is an indicator of muscle strength, suited for evaluating the aging process. Its use depends on the availability of reliable normative reference values (NRV). The main objective of this study is to provide NRV of HGS for Brazilians aged 65 to 90 years.