A Study on the Influence of Social Leisure Activities on the Progression to the Stage of Frailty in Korean Seniors.

Alchan Kim,Jiyoun Kim,Munhee Kim,Eunsurk Yi

doi:10.3390/ijerph17238909

Abstract

In this study, we performed a logistic regression analysis according to the frequency of participation in social leisure activities (education, clubs, social groups, volunteer activities, religious activities, and senior citizens’ welfare center use) by men and women aged ≥ 65 years. We investigated the frequency of participation in social leisure activities and their association with the level of frailty (health vs. pre-frailty, health vs. frailty, pre-frailty vs. frailty). This study included 10,297 older adults (men: 4128, women: 6169) who participated in the 2017 National Survey of Older Koreans, and were divided into three groups (healthy, pre-frailty, and frailty). Five frailty index components were used to measure the frailty level. There was a positive relationship between the elderly’s religious activities, four times a week, from the healthy stage to the frailty stage, from the healthy stage to the pre-frailty stage, and from the pre-frailty stage to the frailty. In addition, positive associations emerged in leisure activities and club activities, respectively, from the healthy stage to the frailty stage (once a week, respectively). Positive association also emerged from the healthy stage to the pre-frailty and from the pre-frailty stage to the frailty stage (once a month to once in a two-week period).

Highlights

In recent years, with a rapidly aging society, the increasing number of older adults with deteriorating physical and psychological functions has emerged as a serious social problem.Aging literally means getting older
The probability of frailty compared to the healthy stage was low when club participation occurred once a month, when social group participation occurred once every two weeks, and religious activities occurred four or more times a week
This study found that participation in religious activities four times a week was the best way to slow the progression from the healthy stage to the pre-frailty or frailty stages

Summary

Introduction

With a rapidly aging society, the increasing number of older adults with deteriorating physical and psychological functions has emerged as a serious social problem.Aging literally means getting older. With a rapidly aging society, the increasing number of older adults with deteriorating physical and psychological functions has emerged as a serious social problem. Frailty is theoretically defined as a clinically recognizable state of increased vulnerability resulting from aging-associated decline in reserve and function across multiple physiologic systems, such that the ability to cope with every day acute stressors is compromised. In the absence of a gold standard, frailty has been operationally defined by Fried et al as meeting three out of five phenotypic criteria, indicating compromised energetics: low grip strength, low energy, slowed waking speed, low physical activity, and/or unintentional weight loss [2]. In the United States, 7% of the older adults aged 65 years or older become frail, and this increases with age, indicating that one in four (25%) older adults aged 85 years or older are frail [3,4]

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