Association Between Frailty and Inpatient Services Utilization Among Older Adults in Rural China: The Mediating Role of Multimorbidity.

Abstract

IntroductionDeveloped and developing countries have different health systems and disease patterns. There is little evidence that frailty is related to inpatient services utilization in developing countries. In addition, the underlying mechanism of this relationship also remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the association between frailty and inpatient services utilization, and further explore whether multimorbidity play a mediating role in this association.MethodsA total of 3,242 rural older adults aged 60 and older were included in the analysis. Frailty was measured by the physical frailty phenotype (PFP). Multimorbidity and inpatient services utilization was measured based on participants' self-report and validated by village doctors. Ordered logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between frailty, multimorbidity and inpatient services utilization. Bootstrap analysis was further to explore the mediation effect of multimorbidity on frailty and inpatient services utilization.ResultsThe utilization of inpatient services was 20.1% (one: 15.8%, two or more: 4.3%). The prevalence of prefrailty and frailty was 64.7 and 18.1%, respectively. Frail older adults experienced a higher risk of multimorbidity and inpatient services utilization. Multimorbidity partially mediated the association between frailty and inpatient services utilization [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.005-0.016, p < 0.001]. The mediating effect of multimorbidity accounted for 19.0% of the total effect.ConclusionsAmong Chinese rural older adults, frailty is associated with higher inpatient services utilization, and multimorbidity mediates this association. Recommendations are to increase frailty risk screening, chronic disease monitoring, and to do timely interventions.