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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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A limit to frailty in very old, community-dwelling people
— a secondary analysis of the Chinese longitudinal health and longevity study | | Author(s) | Stephanie Bennett, Xiaowei Song, Arnold Mitnitski, Kenneth Rockwood |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 42, no 3, May 2013 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, May 2013 |
| Pages | pp 372-377 |
| Source | www.ageing.oxfordjournals.org |
| Keywords | Ageing process ; Octogenarians ; Nonagenarians ; Ill health ; Chronic illness ; Death rate [statistics] ; Living in the community ; China ; Longitudinal surveys. |
| Annotation | It has been observed that a frailty index (FI) is limited by the value of 0.7. Whether this holds in countries with higher mortality rates is not known. The objective of the present study was to test for and quantify a limit in very old Chinese adults and to relate mortality risk to the FI. The study used secondary analysis of four waves (1998, 2000, 2002 and 2005) of the Chinese Longitudinal Health and Longevity Study (CLHLS). Study participants were 6,300 people from 22 of 31 provinces in China, aged 80_99 years at baseline and followed up to seven years. An FI was calculated as the ratio of actual to 38 possible health deficits. Frequency distributions were used to evaluate the limit to the FI. Logistic regression and survival analysis were used to evaluate the relationship between the FI and mortality. At each wave, a 99% submaximal limit to frailty was observed at FI = 0.7, despite consecutive losses to death. The death rate for those who were healthiest at baseline (i.e. those in whom the baseline FI = 0) increased from 0.18 at the two-year follow-up to 0.69 by seven years. At each wave, 100% mortality at two years was observed at FI close to 0.67. A baseline FI >0.45 was associated with 100% seven-year mortality. Overall results show that a limit to frailty occurred with FI = 0.7 which was not exceeded at any age or in any wave. There appears to be a demonstrable limit to the number of health problems that people can tolerate. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-130510212 A |
| Classmark | BG: BBM: BBR: CH: CI: S5: K4: 7DC: 3J |
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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