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. 2025 Apr 30;15(1):15162.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-99843-7.

Longitudinal transitions in frailty and health-related quality of life investigated by a 5-year community study

Ryotaro Oishi #  1   2 , Naoki Segi #  1 , Masaki Okazaki  3 , Sadayuki Ito  1 , Jun Ouchida  1 , Ippei Yamauchi  1 , Taisuke Seki  4 , Yasuhiko Takegami  1 , Shinya Ishizuka  1 , Atsushi Hashizume  3 , Yukiharu Hasegawa  5 , Shiro Imagama  1 , Hiroaki Nakashima  6
Affiliations

Longitudinal transitions in frailty and health-related quality of life investigated by a 5-year community study

Ryotaro Oishi et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between frailty and quality of life (QOL) in a five-year longitudinal cohort of community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults and determine how to identify health-related QOL changes. This study included 124 volunteers (67 women; mean 65 years at baseline) who underwent health checkups in 2014 and 2019. The association between frailty status (robust, prefrail, frail), according to the Japanese Cardiovascular Health Study criteria, and health-related QOL, measured with the SF-36 questionnaire, were investigated. Five-year changes in frailty status were categorized into improved, maintained, and worsened groups. The baseline prevalence of prefrailty and frailty were 44.4% and 7.2%, respectively. Five years later, the frailty of 20 participants improved, 66 maintained frailty status, and frailty worsened in 38 participants. Significant trends toward higher scores on the physical component summary (PCS), role/social component summary (RCS), and subscales of physical functioning, role-physical, vitality, social functioning, and role-emotional were detected across groups with improvements in their frailty status from 2014 to 2019. The fully adjusted multivariable regression model revealed significantly higher PCS scores (β, 12.9; 95% confidence interval (CI), 6.0 to 19.9) and RCS scores (β, 13.6; 95% CI, 6.6 to 20.6) compared with the worsened group. In conclusion, this longitudinal cohort study demonstrates that frailty status is not static and improvements or maintenance of frailty are associated with better physical and social QOL outcomes. Addressing frailty early may reverse or mitigate its impact and improve the overall well-being of older adults.

Keywords: Community-dwelling population; Frail; Longitudinal study; Prefrail; Quality of life (QOL); Yakumo study.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical approval: The study protocol was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee and Institutional Review Board of Nagoya University (No.2014 − 0207). The study procedures were performed according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study enrollment flowchart. J-CHS, Japanese Cardiovascular Health Study.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Changes in the frailty states of the participants over 5 years.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Changes in the SF-36 summary scores and subscales over 5 years.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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