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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Life course social and health conditions linked to frailty in Latin American older men and women | | Author(s) | Beatriz E Alvarado, Maria-Victoria Zunzunegui, Francois Béland |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, vol 63A, no 12, December 2008 |
| Pages | pp 1399-1406 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Older men ; Older women ; Life span ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Health [elderly] ; At risk ; Poor elderly ; Correlation ; South America ; Central America ; West Indies. |
| Annotation | Gender, social conditions and health throughout the life course affect functional health in later life. This article tests two hypotheses: life course, social and health conditions are associated with frailty; and differential exposure and/or vulnerability of women and men to life course conditions may account for gender differences in frailty. Data originated from the. SABE study (Salud, Bienestar y Envejecimiento - a study of health, well-being and ageing), a cross-national survey of older people living in five large Latin American cities (Bridgetown, Sao Paulo, Santiago and Havana). Frailty was defined as the presence of three or more of five criteria: unintentional weight loss (10 pounds during the past year); self-reported exhaustion or poor endurance; weakness (grip strength); function in lower extremities; and low physical activity. A pre-frail state was defined as the presence of one ore two of the above criteria. Associations between frailty and social and health indicators were examined using a proportional odds ordinal logistic regression. Prevalence of frailty varied from 0.30 to 0.48 in women and from 0.21 to 0.35 in men. Childhood (hunger, poor health and poor socio-economic conditions), adulthood (little education and non white collar occupation), and current social conditions (insufficient income) were associated with higher odds of frailty in both men and women. Comorbidity and body mass index (BMI) were related to frailty, but their effect differed in women and men. Male/female age-adjusted odds of frailty varied from 1.55 (Bridgetown) to 2.77 (Havana). Differential exposure snd vulnerability partially explained differences between men and women. Theoretical models to explain gender and social differences in frailty should use a life course perspective. (RH) |
| Accession Number | CPA-090605227 A |
| Classmark | BC: BD: BG6: F: CC: CA3: F:W6: 49 7W: 7U: 7V |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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