Exp Gerontol. 2022 Jun 2:111865. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2022.111865. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: We hypothesized that factors related to malnutrition, namely low muscle mass, appetite loss, and adiposity, are associated with frailty and pre-frailty in community-dwelling older adults.
AIMS: To identify the prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty in a Brazilian convenience sample and test the association between these conditions and malnutrition-related factors.
METHODS: This is a cross-sectional analysis of an ongoing community project. We studied 106 older adults (≥60 years old). Frailty (dependent variable) was screened using the FRAIL-BR scale. The independent variables were appetite loss (AL), screened from the SNAQ questionnaire; sarcopenia risk, investigated by SARC-F; body adiposity, estimated by the body mass index (BMI); visceral adiposity, estimated by waist circumference (WC) and the combination of these two indicators. The associations were investigated using multinomial logistic regression models.
MAIN RESULTS: We found, from our sample, 30.2 % pre-frail and 31.1 % frail participants. The frail and pre-frail were older than the non-frail; the frail ones presented a higher proportion of sarcopenia risk and a higher proportion of AL. From the multiple regression models, frailty conditions showed significant association with the AL (OR = 0.68; p = 0.012 and OR = 0.64; p = 0.009 for pre-frail and frail, respectively) and with sarcopenia risk (OR = 3.24; p = 0.001 and OR = 5.34; p < 0.011 for pre-frail and frail respectively). The adiposity indicated by waist circumference, and age, remained in the final model only as adjusting variables but without statistical significance.
CONCLUSIONS: in our convenience sample of older adults, frailty and pre-frailty showed significant association with appetite loss and sarcopenia risk, but not with adiposity indicators. Future studies are needed to better understand our findings.
PMID:35660640 | DOI:10.1016/j.exger.2022.111865
