Clinical Interventions in Aging (Feb 2018)
Effects of frailty and chronic diseases on quality of life in Dutch community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional study
Abstract
Inge Renne,1 Robbert JJ Gobbens2–4 1General Practice Beeker, Hofland Medisch Centrum, Mijdrecht, the Netherlands; 2Faculty of Health, Sports and Social Work, Inholland University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; 3Zonnehuisgroep Amstelland, Amstelveen, the Netherlands; 4Department of General Practice, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium Objective: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine the associations between frailty and multimorbidity on the one hand and quality of life on the other in community-dwelling older people.Methods: A questionnaire was sent to all people aged 70 years and older belonging to a general practice in the Netherlands; 241 persons completed the questionnaire (response rate 47.5%). For determining multimorbidity, nine chronic diseases were examined by self-report. Frailty was assessed by the Tilburg Frailty Indicator, and quality of life was assessed by the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument—Older Adults Module.Results: Multimorbidity, physical, psychological, as well as social frailty components were negatively associated with quality of life. Multimorbidity and all 15 frailty components together explained 11.6% and 36.5% of the variance of the score on quality of life, respectively.Conclusion: Health care professionals should focus their interventions on the physical, psychological, and social domains of human functioning. Interprofessional cooperation between health care professionals and welfare professionals seems necessary to be able to meet the needs of frail older people. Keywords: older people, frailty, quality of life, multimorbidity
