Prevalence of frailty phenotypes and risk of mortality in a community-dwelling elderly cohort.

Objectives: to determine the prevalence of three independent, disability-free and operationally defined frailty phenotypes and the associated risk of mortality in a community-dwelling older people cohort over 74 years of age.

Methods: observational, prospective and population-based design. Bio-psycho-social variables were assessed using a range of standardised instruments. The physical frailty phenotype (PFP), mental frailty phenotype (MFP) and social frailty phenotype (SFP) were operationally defined using a deficit accumulation model that excluded disability. Logistic regression analyses explored associations of the frailty phenotypes with sex, age and marital status, and a Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association between frailty phenotypes and mortality.

Results: of the eligible individuals, 82% (n = 875) participated. The prevalence of any frailty phenotype in an individual was 38.8%; 17.3% exhibited the PFP, 20.2% exhibited the MFP, and 8.9% exhibited the SPF. Older and female were more likely to exhibit the PFP, and widowhood was associated with the SFP. The hazard ratios of mortality were 3.09 (95% CI = 1.54-6.17) for the PFP and 2.69 (95% CI = 1.01-7.25) for the SFP.

Conclusion: three different disability-free frailty phenotypes were differentially related to the socio-demographical characteristics of sex, age and marital status and independently predicted risk of mortality.