Patterns of intrinsic capacity trajectory and onset of activities of daily living disability among community-dwelling older adults.

Background: Global population ageing has brought about new challenges for elderly care. Exploring intrinsic capacity (IC) over time, which is designed as a composite measure of an individual's physical and mental capabilities, is essential for promoting healthy ageing and preventing dependency, such as that emerging from disability in activities of daily living (ADL). We aimed to identify and examine the differences between classes of IC trajectory and onset of ADL disability.

Methods: We conducted an observational study using data from three waves (2011-15) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, comprising 2609 participants with 6034 observations. IC was measured by five domains, including locomotion, cognition, psychological, sensory capacities, and vitality. We used joint latent class modelling to identify distinct classes with similar patterns of IC trajectory and onset of ADL disability, as well as to explore the variation in IC trajectory and predict five-year risks of ADL disability considering the heterogeneity in the elderly population.

Results: The average baseline IC score was 7.15 (range: 0-15). We observed that IC scores slowly decreased with age, with 17.25% of participants developing ADL disability. We identified three classes of IC, which could be described as moderate health (class 1: n = 1634, 62.63%), at-risk (class 2: n = 716, 27.44%; had the highest risk of ADL disability), and optimal health (class 3: n = 259, 9.93%; had the lowest baseline risk of ADL disability). The probability of being in the moderate health class was decreased the most by emotional problems (odds ratio (OR) = 0.219; P < 0.001). Having a self-rated poor standard of living substantially reduced the chances of moderate (OR = 0.308; P = 0.001) and optimal health (OR = 0.110; P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Observing IC trajectories and the onset of ADL disability can stratify the elderly into heterogeneous groups, as well as provide data for implementing person-centred care plans to reverse the trend and delay the adverse outcomes in clinical practice.