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. 2020;9(2):74-81.
doi: 10.14283/jfa.2019.44.

Reported Weight Change in Older Adults and Presence of Frailty

R S Crow  1 , C L Petersen, S B Cook, C J Stevens, A J Titus, T A Mackenzie, J A Batsis
Affiliations

Reported Weight Change in Older Adults and Presence of Frailty

R S Crow et al. J Frailty Aging. 2020.

Abstract

Objective: A 5% change in weight is a significant predictor for frailty and obesity. We ascertained how self-reported weight change over the lifespan impacts rates of frailty in older adults.

Methods: We identified 4,984 subjects ≥60 years with body composition measures from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. An adapted version of Fried's frailty criteria was used as the primary outcome. Self-reported weight was assessed at time current,1 and 10 years earlier and at age 25. Weight changes between each time point were categorized as ≥ 5%, ≤5% or neutral. Logistic regression assessed the impact of weight change on the outcome of frailty.

Results: Among 4,984 participants, 56.5% were female, mean age was 71.1 years, and mean BMI was 28.2kg/m2. A weight loss of ≥ 5% had a higher association with frailty compared to current weight, age 25 (OR 2.94 [1.72,5.02]), 10 years ago (OR 1.68 [1.05,2.69]), and 1 year ago (OR 1.55 [1.02,2.36]). Weight gain in the last year was associated with increased rate of frailty (1.59 [1.09,2.32]).

Conclusion: There is an association between frailty and reported weight loss over time while only weight gain in the last year has an association with frailty.

Keywords: Obesity; frailty; pre-frailty; sarcopenia.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest pertaining to this manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Change in Weight by Frailty Status. This figure represents a LOESS smoothed line demonstrating the change in weight as a function of age by frailty status
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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