University of Groningen
Frailty among older people in a community setting in China
Zhang, Xiaohong; Liu, Yanhui; Van der Schans, C. P.; Krijnen, W.; Hobbelen, J. S. M.
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Geriatric Nursing
DOI:
10.1016/j.gerinurse.2019.11.013
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Zhang, X., Liu, Y., Van der Schans, C. P., Krijnen, W., & Hobbelen, J. S. M. (2020). Frailty among older
people in a community setting in China. Geriatric Nursing, 41(3), 320-324.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2019.11.013
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Geriatric Nursing 41 (2020) 320 324
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Feature Article
Frailty among older people in a community setting in China
Xiaohong Zhang, Master, PhDa,b, Yanhui Liu, PhDa,**, C.P. Van der Schans, PhD, PT, CEb,c,e,
W. Krijnen, PhDb, J.S.M. Hobbelen, PhD, PTb,d,*
a
Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Research Group Healthy Ageing, Allied Health Care and Nursing, Groningen, the Netherlands
c
University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Groningen, the Netherlands
d
University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of General Practice and Elderly Care Medicine, Groningen, the Netherlands
e
University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Health Psychology, Groningen, the Netherlands
b
A R T I C L E
I N F O
Article history:
Received 14 August 2019
Received in revised form 25 November 2019
Accepted 27 November 2019
Available online 18 January 2020
Keywords:
Frailty
Older adult
Factors
Community-dwelling older people
A B S T R A C T
Frailty is the most common manifestation of serious health issues in the world, and it is becoming more prevalent worldwide as the aging population grows. Changes that occur in an individual during the aging process
have physical, psychological, social, and environmental aspects that make an individual more frail. In China,
older people may live in communities for aging individuals. This study aimed to describe the presence and
severity of frailty and to analyze influencing factors among this population in China. The Frailty Index 35
(FI-35) scale, which includes 35 items in physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains, was
used to investigate frailty. The FI-35 score ranges from zero to one, with a score closer to one indicating
greater frailty. Biographical, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors were measured as potential determinants of
frailty. We relied on the November 2017 February 2018 waves of the Chinese cross-sectional study survey
that comprised a sample of 513 adults, aged 60 or older, who were living in China. Linear regression was performed to identify factors associated with FI-35 scores. We categorized the determinants of frailty into three
models: Model 1: biographical variables; Model 2: biographical and socioeconomic variables; and Model 3:
biographical, economic, and lifestyle variables. Frailty scores ranged from 0.00 to 0.89, with a median of 0.31,
and the prevalence of frailty was 67.6%. The final model obtained after variable selection included age, minority status, marriage status, income, diet, and exercise. The adjusted R-squared indicated that the analysis
explained 13.8% of the variance in frailty scores. Adding household, marriage status, education level, medical
insurance, and income as elements in Model 2 explained 25.7%. Adding diet, smoking, drinking, exercise, and
hobbies in Model 3 explained 27.9%. The degree of frailty varies considerably among Chinese communitydwelling older people and is partly determined by biographical, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors.
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Due to the increase in life expectancy, the number of people over
the age of 60 is expected to double by 2050, according to a new
report by the WHO for the International Day of Older Persons1
(WHO, 2015). China has the largest population over the age of
60 years in the world, and the average life expectancy is 73 years,
with 9.2% of the older population aged 80+ years.2 With increasing
age, people may become increasingly frail and have a higher risk of
*Corresponding author at: Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Research Group
Healthy Ageing, Allied Health Care and Nursing, Groningen, the Netherlands.
**Corresponding author at: Tianjin University of traditional Chinese medicine, Tianjin,
China
E-mail addresses:
[email protected] (Y. Liu),
[email protected]
(J.S.M. Hobbelen).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2019.11.013
0197-4572/$ see front matter © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
adverse outcomes, and frailty is becoming more prevalent as the
aging population grows worldwide.3,4 Frailty is characterized by
decreased strength and a reduced physiologic reserve that easily
results in serious functional limitations and adverse health outcomes
related to aging.5,6
Frail individuals are highly susceptible to injury, and minor stressful events can lead to hospitalization, disability, or even death,3,7
frailty is a robust predictor of subsequent mortality at older ages.8,9
The progression of frailty is associated with cognitive decline, such as
cognitive impairment,10 mild cognitive impairment (MCI),11 and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).12 Furthermore, frailty affects the quality of life
of older persons as it reduces their independence, shortens their life
expectancy, and increases the burden on their social network and
family caregivers.13,14
In the mid-1990s, slow walking speeds and weight loss were combined to form comprehensive scores to predict adverse clinical
X. Zhang et al. / Geriatric Nursing 41 (2020) 320 324
outcomes, which was a breakthrough in frailty measurement.15,16
From this first biomedical concept, a broader, biopsychosocial vision
emerged in which frailty increases with the accumulation of physical,
psychological, and social factors, and the concept of frailty was
acknowledged as multidimensional.17
A large part of the literature on frailty is concentrated on aged
persons in Western countries, whereas research in other countries is
limited.18 China has a large aging population and the world’s largest
oldest-old population; however, little is known about frailty and its
determinants. In the future, as China will face dramatic population
aging, it is imperative to ascertain the influencing factors among
older adult individuals in China to respond to the challenges of caring
for them and enhance their healthy longevity. To date, in China, most
health care professionals pay more attention to disease than frailty in
the process of care.19 In recent years, several well-established frailty
assessment instruments have been translated into the Chinese language, for example, the Phenotype of Frailty (FP) developed by Fried
et al.20 and the Frailty Index (FI) by Rockwood et al.21 However, these
instruments were unable to fully reflect specific Chinese characteristics, as was shown in the study by Zhang et al.22 They developed a
comprehensive frailty assessment tool specifically built for the Chinese population in which in addition to the three well-known
domains of frailty (“physical”, “psycho-cognitive” and “social”), the
domain “environment” was added. This instrument is called the FI35 and consists of 35 items covering 4 domains and 11 subdomains,
enabling a much broader research perspective than was previously
possible.
An interesting development is the initiation of communities for
the aging population that began in the late 1980s in China. Prior to
that, older persons tended to stay at home as long as possible, and
care was most often provided by relatives.23 Owing to the influence
of traditional ideas, older persons in China like to be taken care of
by their children. However, current family structures are forcing a
change in the traditional Chinese pension model. In the next few
years, the first generation of parents under the Chinese one-child
policy will begin the aging process and need more professional care,
but in many cases, their child will be unable to provide sufficient
care due to a busy work schedule.24 Therefore, this old-age model is
gradually transforming into community-based care.25 Communitybased care and services that include living services and health care
are available to these individuals during the day. It enables older
adult individuals to go to the venues for activities or seek medical
care while their children are not at home, and at night, they can
reunite with their children. The community model can reduce the
financial burden of the government and reduce the burden of care
experienced by their children. Following the old-age model of transformation, there will be a period when the demand for communities
for older persons will increase exponentially. Therefore, the aim of
this study was to investigate frailty in persons in older adult communities in China and analyze the influencing factors of frailty. We
hypothesized that age, nationality, household, marriage, income,
diet, exercise would be significantly associated with frailty as measured by the FI-35.
321
questionnaire, for instance, due to severe mental or physical constraints or acute illness, were not included. According to the standards, we investigated three communities in Tianjin.
The FI-35 consists of 35 items and covers four domains: 1. Physical
with subdomains of nutrition, motion, strength, energy, and sleep
quality; 2. Cognitive with subdomains of emotion and cognition; 3.
Social with subdomains of role and social contact; and 4. Environment with subdomains of environment and adaptability.22 All of the
answers from the participants were scored between 0 and 1, where 0
indicated normal function and 1 indicated the presence of frailty. A
frailty score was calculated for each participant by dividing the sum
of the unhealthy index by the total number of the healthy index. For
example, if a person scored 12 out of 35, the FI was calculated as
12/35 = 0.34. The closer the score was to 1, the frailer the person.
According to the FRAIL scale, we combined the receiver operating
characteristic (ROC) curve with the Youden index (YI) and ultimately
determined the critical value of frailty to be 0.23 (frailty: frailty
index 0.23; nonfrailty: frailty index < 0.23). According to our previous published research, the FI-35 scale has good reliability and
validity.22
Measurements
Demographic variables included basic demographic information
(age, sex, nationality, marriage status, educational level, etc.) and living habits (smoking, drinking, diet, hobbies, etc.). Age was divided
into five groups (60 64, 65 69, 70 74, 75 79, and >80 years). We
distinguished five groups of educational levels: never went to school,
primary school, junior school, high school, and college degree or
above. Household indicated whether a respondent lived alone or
with others. Exercise was divided into four groups: never,
1 2 times/week, 3 4 times/week, and every day. The other variables
are depicted in Table 1. Factors were clustered in three domains: biographical (age, sex, nationality), socioeconomic (household, number
of children, education level, medical insurance, income), and lifestyle
(diet, smoking, drinking, exercise, hobbies). Before the survey,
the investigator introduced the purpose of this collection.
Questionnaires were dispensed during a face-to-face interview by
trained interviewers. For a participant with a low education level or
poor eyesight, the questions were explained by the interviewer who
also filled in the answers.
Statistical analyses
We used frequencies and percentages for descriptive statistics for
the quantitative data. Several linear regressions were performed to
identify factors associated with the dependent variable (FI-35 score).
The explanatory variables were age group, sex, minority status,
household, marriage status, number of children, education level, preretirement occupations, medical insurance, source of finances,
income, retirement adjustment time, self-care ability, diet, smoking
status, drinking alcohol, exercise level, hobbies, and prescribed medications. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 22.0
(IBM Corp. Armonk, NY). Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.
Methods
Results
Design and study sample
Study sample characteristics
This cross-sectional study was carried out in Tianjin, China, after
collecting data from November 2017 to February 2018. Convenience
sampling was used to collect data in three communities in which
older persons resided. The selection criteria of the sample of participants were (1) being at least 60 years of age; (2) being able to communicate and conscious, and (3) being able to voluntary participate
in the study. Persons who were unable to complete the
The participants were recruited from among 600 older persons
from three communities in Tianjin, from which 560 questionnaires
were obtained. In cases where more than 5% of responses were missing, the questionnaires were excluded. This yielded 513 questionnaires that were included, which corresponded to an effective
response rate of 91.6%. The mean (sd) age of participants was 69.6
322
X. Zhang et al. / Geriatric Nursing 41 (2020) 320 324
Table 1
Demographic variables of older adults (n = 513).
Variable
Group
Number
%age (%)
Sex
Male
Female
60 64
65 69
70 74
75 79
>80
Han
Minority
1 person
2 persons
Married
Unmarried
Divorced
Widowed
No
Yes
Never go to school
Primary school
Junior school
High school
College degree or above
Worker
Farmer
Administrative cadres
Manager
Teacher
Financial services
Medical workers
Others
Yes
No
Retired
Subsidies from children
Government relief
Labor income
<1000
1000 1999
2000 3999
4000
Do not have any problems
Half a year
A year
More than two years
Unable to function
independently
Partial self-care
Fully self-care
Unhealthy food
Healthy food
Never smoking
Give up smoking
Smoking
Never drinking
Giver up drinking
Drinking
Never
1 2 times/week
3 4 times/week
Every day
Yes
No
Take medicine on time
Often forget
No medicine
228
285
134
182
65
93
39
457
56
72
441
429
3
30
51
17
496
48
47
134
82
202
134
31
78
82
73
13
42
60
483
30
460
49
3
1
42
53
223
190
451
40
9
13
26
44.4
55.6
26.1
35.5
12.7
18.1
7.6
89.1
10.9
14.0
86.0
83.6
0.6
5.9
9.9
3.3
96.7
9.4
9.2
26.1
15.9
39.4
26.1
6.0
15.2
16.0
14.2
2.5
8.3
11.7
94.2
5.8
89.7
9.5
0.6
0.2
8.2
10.3
43.5
37.0
87.9
7.8
1.8
2.5
5.1
69
418
125
388
382
74
57
380
90
43
160
59
94
200
276
237
357
120
36
13.5
81.5
24.4
75.6
74.5
14.4
11.1
74.1
17.5
8.4
31.2
11.5
18.3
39.0
53.8
46.2
69.6
23.4
7.0
Age
Nationality
Household
Marriage status
Children
Education level
Preretirement occupation
Medical insurance
Source of finances
Income (yuan)
Retirement adjustment time
Self-care ability
Diet
Smoking
Drinking
Exercise
Hobbies extensive
Prescribed medication
(7.2) years. There was a predominance of individuals who were
female (285, 55.6%), aged 65 to 69 years (182, 35.5%), Chinese Han
(457, 89.1%), and married (429, 83.6%). There were 202 (39.4%) participants who had obtained a college degree or above. The vast
majority of participants among the 513 (496, 96.7%) had children. In
terms of “preretirement occupations”, most of the participants were
employed as workers before they retired (134, 26.1%). In total, 94.2%
of the participants had medical insurance. The largest number of people were in the income group “2000 3999 yuan” (223, 43.47%),
which, most often, was from retirement finances (457, 89.67%). There
were 451 of the 513 older persons who indicated not having
any problems in realizing a purposeful life after retirement. A total of
81.5% (n = 418) of the participants reported that they could fully selfcare, and 86% (n = 441) of them were living with others, while 14%
(n = 72) were living alone. A number of the participants had healthy
eating habits and had never smoked (382, 74.5%) or ingested alcohol
(n = 380, 74.1%). A total of 53.8% (n = 276) reported that they had
many hobbies. There were 357 (69.59%) participants who indicated
that they could take medications on time and obey the instructions
from doctors. Other characteristics of the study sample are shown in
Table 1.
Frailty and its factors
The FI-35 score ranged from 0.00 to 0.89, with a median of 0.31.
The most important frailty dimensions were “social contact”, “role”,
and “sleep”, with scores of 1.00 (0.00~1.00), 0.67 (0.00~0.67) and 0.33
(0.00~1.00), respectively. The total score on the FI-35 and the score of
each dimension are shown in Table 2.
Using a cut-off score of FI 0.23 for frailty, 67.6% (n = 347) of individuals were considered frail. Table 3 shows the results of the linear
regression for determining the relationship of the variables with
frailty. Significant associations among age, nationality, and frailty
were obtained in Model 1 (p < 0.001); the adjusted R-squared indicated that the model explained 13.8% of the frailty variance. Adding
household, marriage status, education level, medical insurance, and
income as elements in Model 2, the model explained 25.7% of the
frailty variance, which was an increased in the explained percentage
of variance equal to 11.9. There were significant associations between
the variables of frailty and household, marriage status, and income
(p < 0.05). When adding diet, smoking, drinking, exercise, and hobbies in Model 3, the model explained 27.9% of the frailty variance
with an increase in the explanatory variance of 2.2% compared to
Model 2. Negative (protective) significant associations were obtained
between frailty and the variables diet and exercise (p < 0.05). The
greatest increase in the explained variance was found when socioeconomic factors were added. Socioeconomic status is the most
important explanatory factor in our study, followed by lifestyle. Compared with age (b = 0.043), nationality (b = 0.108) had a greater influence on frailty in Model 1. In Model 2, household (b = 0.085) was the
most influential variable, followed by income (b = 0.062) and marriage status (b = 0.032). It is worth noting that the value of income
was negative, indicating that older people with higher incomes had
lower levels of frailty. In Model 3, a healthy diet (b = 0.036) was
more influential than exercise (b = 0.014). For the results of the
Table 2
The median subdomain scores for the FI-35 scale (n = 513).
Nutrition
Motion
Muscle strength
Energy
Sleep
Cognition
Emotion
Contact
Role
Environment
Adaptability
Total
Median
Interquartile range
0.00
0.25
0.00
0.00
0.33
0.25
0.00
1.00
0.67
0.00
0.00
0.31
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.25
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.23
0.33
0.50
0.33
1.00
1.00
0.75
0.33
1.00
0.67
0.67
0.67
0.46
X. Zhang et al. / Geriatric Nursing 41 (2020) 320 324
Table 3
Regression models for frailty (n = 513).
Variable
Model 1
p
b
Ref
Sex
Age
Nationality
Household
Marriage
Education
Medical insurance
Income (yuan)
Diet
Smoking
Drinking
Exercise
Hobbies
R2
DR2
AIC
BIC
0.132
0.002
0.043
0.108
0.895
0.000
0.000
0.143
0.138
1854.598
1837.637
Model 2
p
b
0.173
0.030
0.035
0.086
0.085
0.032
0.004
0.025
0.062
0.042
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.581
0.468
0.000
0.269
0.257
1952.896
1887.734
Model 3
p
b
0.153
0.016
0.035
0.082
0.072
0.031
0.004
0.033
0.049
0.036
0.014
0.011
0.014
0.031
0.331
0.000
0.000
0.004
0.000
0.568
0.354
0.000
0.033
0.314
0.403
0.033
0.055
0.298
0.279
1936.562
1867.958
Model 1: biographical variables.
Model 2: biographical and socioeconomic variables.
Model 3: biographical, socioeconomic and lifestyle variables.
three models, the Akaike information criterion (AIC) was 1854.598,
1952.896, and 1936.562 in models 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The
Bayesian information criterion (BIC) was 1837.637, 1887.734, and
1867.958 for models 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Since smaller criterion
values correspond to better models,26 both AIC and BIC indicated that
model 2 was the best.These findings indicate that socioeconomic status is the most important general factor explaining and predicting
frailty, followed by lifestyle (shown in Table 3).
Discussion
We found that 67.6% of older adult individuals living in communities for older persons in China can be considered frail on the basis of
the FI-35. The main related factors for frailty are age, nationality,
household, marriage status, income, diet, and exercise.
We found that the majority of older persons living in communities
are frail. This is comparable to a previous study in similar communities in which 63.7% were frail.27 However, other comparable studies
found a much lower prevalence of frailty (11.1%18 and 10.3%30). Differences between studies may be the result of differences in questionnaires as well as the construct used for frailty rates.3 Ren et al.28
used the SHARE-FI (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in
Europe Frailty Instrument), which assessed only physical function:
fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle strength, difficulty walking, and low
physical activity. Xi and Guo used the frailty phenotype,18 which also
covers only the physical domain of frailty, which explains the significant differences between our estimations and their results. Frailty is
a complex clinical syndrome, and it relates to age, physical function,
disease status, psychological factors and social security, and other
factors; therefore, it is necessary to use multidimensional measurements to assess frailty in old people. However, most of the multidimensional tools were designed using three general domains
(physical, psychological, and social) to assess the level of frailty, for
example, the Edmonton Frail Scale29 and the model of frailty,30 while
our tool covers four domains (the fourth is ‘environmental’). Environment has a great impact on health. A change in environment will contribute to the risk of functional decline, and a decline in the ability of
older people to adapt to the environment will make their health
problems more serious. Thus, adding the domain of “environmental”
may yield a broader description of the concept of frailty. The
323
additional domain of “environmental” in the FI-35 could explain the
higher prevalence of frailty in our study.
In our study, we ascertained significant associations between age
and frailty. Namely, the prevalence of frailty became more pronounced with increasing age, a finding confirmed by many
studies.3,4,8 Frailty is often associated with high health risks, and it
combined with physiological deterioration due to aging, especially a
loss of muscle mass and bone density31 may increase the risk of
adverse events (such as hospitalizations and falls).32
Our finding that participants were from the Han minority is in line
with previous studies, revealing that ethnicity was one of the factors
relate to frailty.33 We determined that the factors contributing most
to frailty are of the socioeconomic type, including household, marriage status, and income. Income was significantly and negatively
associated with the FI-35 score. Household and marriage status were
significantly and positively associated with the FI-35 score. Adequate
income is the basic guarantee for a healthy life. Because of worry
about medical expenses, aged persons may not go to the hospital in
time, which leads to a deterioration in their condition and further
deterioration of their health. Timely treatment or medical care may
be a result of good economic support from a higher income.32
We found that older people who are married are less frail than
those who are not married. This may be explained by the relationship
between frailty and psychosocial factors.34 Positive emotions are a
factor related to individual health, especially among this population,
and spouses provide spiritual support. This may explain why the
individuals who were married were less frail according to Model 2.
Compared with married people, widowed or divorced individuals
had different results. A previous study confirms what other studies
have shown: living alone has a positive effect on frailty, and older
persons living with another person are more likely to be frail compared to those living alone.35,36 The reason is unclear, but perhaps
people who live alone are more independent and do not show frailty.
Although socioeconomic factors of frailty were previously summarized,37 39 we did not find a relationship between frailty and the
level of education in our regression models. This may be due to the
high level of frailty across the education level groups at these ages.
The results of our study also suggest that lifestyle factors may contribute to the degree of frailty: exercise and diet seem to be relevant
factors. These results are in accordance with previous studies indicating that avoiding going outside and disliking exercise are clinical
indicators of frailty in older people when lifestyle and clinical characteristics are considered40 and that the level of frailty is lower in older
individuals who were able to walk outside and exercise than in those
who were not.40,41 Exercise is considered a preventive or protective
factor for development of frailty because it can improve the function
of the central nervous, immune, endocrine, and skeletal systems and
improve body functions.32 Furthermore, a recent study highlights the
importance of diet in older people.42 Aged persons who had better
nutrition and protein intakes and better adherence to healthy diets
had lower rates of frailty than those with lower nutrient intakes who
ate unhealthy food.42
Communities for aging persons in China combine homebased care and the professional services of institutional care, improving the efficiency of social old-age care services and reducing the
waste of social resources; thus, community-based old-age care has
become the main mode of development in China, and most older
people are inclined to move to these communities.25 Our study provides evidence of risk factors for frailty in China and the application
of the FI-35 scale in the Chinese population.
Limitations
Two limitations should be considered. The convenience sampling
in our study was restricted to special older adult communities.
324
X. Zhang et al. / Geriatric Nursing 41 (2020) 320 324
Therefore, the results cannot be generalized to the whole old population in China. Moreover, the aged communities from Tianjin seem
somewhat more representative of northern China as far as lifestyle
and environment is concerned. In the future, it is advised to investigate frailty of people living in communities for older individuals in
other regions of China as well. The FI-35 scale is a self-reported frailty
instrument with some risk of under- or overestimation by the
respondents. In the future, these should be validated against more
objective assessment instruments.
Conclusions
This cross-sectional study of older Chinese people living in an
older adult community showed a prevalence of frailty of 67.6%, which
was considerably higher than in previous research. Expected associations were found with age, ethnicity, household, number of children,
income, diet, and exercise.
Since China has the largest rapidly aging population, it is imperative to face the challenges relating to health care for these older persons. The results of our study suggest explanatory factors for frailty. A
consecutive comprehensive health management model is urgently
needed for the purposes of early prevention and multidimensional
intervention in the high-risk population of those who are frail.
Declaration of Competing Interest
All authors of this manuscript have directly participated in planning, execution, and/or analysis of this study. The contents of this
manuscript have not been copyrighted or published previously. The
contents of this manuscript are not now under consideration for publication elsewhere. We declare that there is no conflicts of interest in
our work.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank all of the elders of the community in Tianjin
who agreed to participate in this study. The authors used data collected by the nursing school of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. All procedures performed in studies involving human
participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of Tianjin
University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Informed consents were
obtained from all of the participants included in our study. There are
no conflicts of interest. This work was supported by the Humanity
and Social Science Youth foundation of Ministry of Education of China
(No.18YJAZH060).
References
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