COGNITION, FUNCTIONAL STATUS AND FRAILTY AMONG THE OLDEST OLD

Abstract

Background: Frailty is defined as a recognizable state of increased vulnerability resulting from age-associated decline of function in various physiological systems. Objective: To assess possible associations between cognition, function status and frailty in a sample of oldest old with performance below cut off scores for dementia in the MMSE. Methods: Sociodemographic, cognitive, functional status and frailty data were obtained from 130 individuals.Frailty was defined by Fried’s frailty phenotype.Functional status was measured by the Functional Activities Questionnaire.The Cognitive Dementia Rating scale was applied to assess dementia severity. Results: In all,28% were male and 72% female,mean age of 82.4 years(SD=5.3).40% were illiterate and 94% had held jobs based on manual activity.In the sample 54.6% had functional impairment.Among participants with normal cognition and functional status,6.1% were frail,8.4% pre-frail and 7.6% robust,among those with impaired cognition and preserved functional status,13% were frail,6.9% pre-frail and 0.7% robust;among those with impaired cognition and functional status,30,7% were frail,19.2% pre-frail and 4.6% robust;and among those with preserved cognition and impaired functional status,0% were frail or robust and 2.3% pre-frail. Conclusion: Participants with impaired cognition and functional status included the largest number of frail and pre-frail participants. These results suggest that impaired cognition and functional status are associated with frailty among the oldest old.