Frailty does not cause all frail symptoms: United States Health and Retirement Study.

Abstract

BackgroundFrailty is associated with major health outcomes. However, the relationships between frailty and frailty symptoms haven't been well studied. This study aims to show the associations between frailty and frailty symptoms.MethodsThe Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is an ongoing longitudinal biannual survey in the United States. Three of the most used frailty diagnoses, defined by the Functional Domains Model, the Burden Model, and the Biologic Syndrome Model, were reproduced according to previous studies. The associations between frailty statuses and input symptoms were assessed using odds ratios and correlation coefficients.ResultsThe sample sizes, mean ages, and frailty prevalence matched those reported in previous studies. Frailty statuses were weakly correlated with each other (coefficients = 0.19 to 0.38, p 0.05 for all). One to six symptoms defined by the other two models were not significantly correlated with each of the three frailty statuses (p > 0.05 for all). Frailty statuses were significantly correlated with their own bias variables (p ConclusionFrailty diagnoses lack significant correlations with some of their own frailty symptoms and some of the frailty symptoms defined by the other two models. This finding raises questions like whether the frailty symptoms lacking significant correlations with frailty statuses could be included to diagnose frailty and whether frailty exists and causes frailty symptoms.