Lifestyle Activity Patterns Related to Physical Frailty and Cognitive Impairment in Urban Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Japan

Abstract

ObjectivesInvestigating the lifestyle activity patterns of urban community-dwelling Japanese older adults, focusing on physical frailty and cognitive impairment. DesignCross-sectional study. Setting and ParticipantsParticipants comprised 8003 older adults (4489 women; mean age: 72.5 years, SD = ±6.1, range 60-95 years) from the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology Study of Geriatric Syndromes. MethodsParticipants reported on their lifestyle activity status, including using public transport, grocery shopping, light exercise, gardening, money management, meeting friends, participating in events, and travel. Several potential confounding variables, such as demographic characteristics, were considered. We assessed their lifestyle activity patterns using a latent class analysis and defined physical frailty by either slow walking speed or poor grip strength. Cognitive impairment was defined by participants exhibiting more than 1 of the following symptoms: poor word list memory, poor attention, reduced executive function, and low processing speed test scores. We also examined the relationship between their lifestyle activity patterns and physical frailty and cognitive impairment. ResultsThe overall prevalence of robustness, physical frailty, cognitive impairment, and frailty and cognitive impairment was 54.6%, 21.4%, 13.3%, and 10.7%, respectively. We defined 4 classes using latent class analysis: greater engagement in multidomain activities, lower engagement in going-out activities, lower engagement in cognitive and physical activities, and lower engagement in multidomain activities. Moreover, physical frailty and cognitive impairment were independently associated with lower engagement in going-out activity, lower engagement in cognitive and physical activities, and lower engagement in multidomain activities, after adjusting for covariates. Conclusions and ImplicationsConsidering an older adult's lifestyle activity patterns in their day-to-day practice, clinicians can deliver more older adult-centered care, which in turn might lead to better outcomes in the primary prevention of disease.