Prevalence of Cognitive Frailty, Do Psychosocial-Related Factors Matter?

Esperanza Navarro-Pardo,David Facal,Arturo Pereiro,Onésimo Juncos-Rabadán,María Campos-Magdaleno

doi:10.3390/brainsci10120968

Esperanza Navarro-Pardo, David Facal + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10120968

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Abstract

Cognitive frailty (CF) is a topic of growing interest with implications for the study of preventive interventions in aging. Nevertheless, little research has been done to assess the influence of psychosocial variables on the risk of CF. Our objectives were to estimate the prevalence of CF in a Spanish sample and to explore the influence of psychosocial variables in this prevalence. Physical frailty and cognitive, functional, psychosocial, and socio-demographic aspects were assessed in a sample of 285 participants over 60 years. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were carried out. A prevalence of 21.8% (95% CI 17.4–26.9) was established when both frail and pre-frail conditions were included, and a prevalence of 3.2% (95% CI 1.7–5.9) if only frail individuals were considered. Age, educational level, profession and psychological well-being variables significantly predicted CF. Frailty and pre-frailty are high-prevalence health conditions in older adults influenced by socio-demographic, socio-educative and affective factors.

Highlights

Research perspectives on frailty are making relevant contributions to understand the major domains that mediate the complex relationships between aging, on the one hand, and physical and psychological conditions, on the other one
According to the general criteria established by Kelaiditi et al [5], we considered as cases of cognitive frailty those with a frail and pre-frail phenotype and possible cognitive impairment
The prevalence of Cognitive frailty (CF) was 21.8%, with 62 cases from a total sample of 285 participants

Summary

Introduction

Research perspectives on frailty are making relevant contributions to understand the major domains that mediate the complex relationships between aging, on the one hand, and physical and psychological conditions, on the other one. Frailty is conventionally defined as a multidimensional clinical syndrome, characterized by loss of biophysical reserve and diminished resistance to stressors, causing vulnerability to adverse health outcomes and leading to loss of function that can be expressed in different ways (i.e., energy, physical ability, cognition, and health) [1,2]. The prevalence of CF was recently estimated to be 1% to 5% in community-dwelling older adults [6,7,8,9]. A relevant heterogeneity (ranging from 0.9% to 40.0%) is evident in the literature and several factors have probably contributed to such wide variability; there have been differences in the way the two components of cognitive frailty have been operationalized [10], and some of them have included physical pre-frailty [11,12].

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