IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v14y2017i10p1096-d112713.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Frailty and Its Contributory Factors in Older Adults: A Comparison of Two Asian Regions (Hong Kong and Taiwan)

Author

Listed:
  • Ruby Yu

    (Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong Jockey Club Institute of Ageing, Shatin, Hong Kong, China)

  • Wan-Chi Wu

    (Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan)

  • Jason Leung

    (The Chinese University of Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Osteoporosis Care and Control, Shatin, Hong Kong, China)

  • Susan C. Hu

    (Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan)

  • Jean Woo

    (Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong Jockey Club Institute of Ageing, Shatin, Hong Kong, China)

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the prevalence of frailty across three Chinese populations: Hong Kong, Taiwan-urban and Taiwan-rural. Contributing factors to disparities in frailty were also examined. Data were derived from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOs) and Women (MsOs) (Hong Kong) Study ( n = 4000) and the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging ( n = 2392). Frailty was defined as an index calculated from 30 multiple deficits. The ratio of the frailty index to life expectancy at birth (FI/LE) was used as an indicator of compression of morbidity. Frailty was more prevalent in Taiwan-urban (33.1%) and Taiwan-rural (38.1%) compared to Hong Kong (16.6%, p < 0.05) and was higher in women (22.6–49.7%) than in men (10.5–27.5%, p < 0.05). The ratios of FI/LE were higher in Taiwan-urban and Taiwan-rural (both 0.27) compared to Hong Kong (0.20, p < 0.05). Multivariate analyses revealed that older age, being a woman and low levels of physical activity were common risk factors for frailty across the three populations. Alcohol use was inversely associated with frailty in both Hong Kong and Taiwan-urban populations, but not in Taiwan-rural. Living alone was associated with frailty in Hong Kong men, but not in Hong Kong women or Taiwanese people. For all study populations, older age and being a woman constituted the highest attributable factor. This comparison provides useful data to inform government policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruby Yu & Wan-Chi Wu & Jason Leung & Susan C. Hu & Jean Woo, 2017. "Frailty and Its Contributory Factors in Older Adults: A Comparison of Two Asian Regions (Hong Kong and Taiwan)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:10:p:1096-:d:112713
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/10/1096/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/10/1096/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kenneth Harttgen & Paul Kowal & Holger Strulik & Somnath Chatterji & Sebastian Vollmer, 2013. "Patterns of Frailty in Older Adults: Comparing Results from Higher and Lower Income Countries Using the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the Study on Global AGEing and Adu," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(10), pages 1-11, October.
    2. Swartz, A., 2008. "James Fries: healthy aging pioneer," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(7), pages 1163-1166.
    3. Shye, Diana & Mullooly, John P. & Freeborn, Donald K. & Pope, Clyde R., 1995. "Gender differences in the relationship between social network support and mortality: A longitudinal study of an elderly cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 935-947, October.
    4. Qiushi Feng & Zhihong Zhen & Danan Gu & Bei Wu & Pamela W. Duncan & Jama L. Purser, 2013. "Trends in ADL and IADL Disability in Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Shanghai, China, 1998-2008," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 68(3), pages 476-485.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ah Ram Jang & Ju Young Yoon, 2021. "Multilevel Factors Associated with Frailty among the Rural Elderly in Korea Based on the Ecological Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-14, April.
    2. Takumi Abe & Akihiko Kitamura & Satoshi Seino & Yuri Yokoyama & Hidenori Amano & Yu Taniguchi & Mariko Nishi & Miki Narita & Tomoko Ikeuchi & Yui Tomine & Yoshinori Fujiwara & Shoji Shinkai, 2019. "Differences in the Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Frailty in Five Japanese Residential Areas," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-9, October.
    3. Jean Woo, 2017. "How Can We Achieve Healthy Aging?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-2, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oscar Flores-Flores & Ruth Bell & Rodney Reynolds & Antonio Bernabé-Ortiz, 2018. "Older adults with disability in extreme poverty in Peru: How is their access to health care?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Qi Tang & Min Yuan & Wenhui Wu & Huanyun Wu & Cao Wang & Gang Chen & Chengyue Li & Jun Lu, 2022. "Health Status and Individual Care Needs of Disabled Elderly at Home in Different Types of Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-12, September.
    3. Ana Lucia Abeliansky & Holger Strulik, 2023. "Health and aging before and after retirement," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 2825-2855, October.
    4. Strulik, Holger, 2022. "A health economic theory of occupational choice, aging, and longevity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    5. Qian, Yuting & Chen, Shanquan & Lin, Zhuoer & Yu, Zexuan & Wang, Mengxiao & Hou, Xiaohui & Chen, Xi, 2023. "The Growing Gap of Unmet Need: Assessing the Demand for, and Supply of, Home-Based Support for Older Adults with Disabilities in 31 Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 16411, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Strulik, Holger & Grossmann, Volker, 2024. "The economics of aging with infectious and chronic diseases," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    7. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Strulik, Holger, 2018. "How season of birth affects health and aging," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 352, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    8. Donrovich, Robyn & Drefahl, Sven & Koupil, Ilona, 2014. "Early life conditions, partnership histories, and mortality risk for Swedish men and women born 1915–1929," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 60-67.
    9. Heather Booth & Pilar Rioseco & Heather Crawford, 2014. "What can reverse causation tell us about demographic differences in the social network and social support determinants of self-rated health in later life?," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 12(1), pages 23-52.
    10. Linda G. Martin & Qiushi Feng & Robert F. Schoeni & Yi Zeng, 2014. "Trends in Functional and Activity Limitations among Chinese Oldest-Old, 1998 to 2008," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 40(3), pages 475-495, September.
    11. Berntsen, Kjersti Norgård & Kravdal, Øystein, 2012. "The relationship between mortality and time since divorce, widowhood or remarriage in Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2267-2274.
    12. McGovern, Mark E., 2014. "Comparing the relationship between stature and later life health in six low and middle income countries," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 4(C), pages 128-148.
    13. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Casper Worm Hansen & Holger Strulik, 2017. "Accounting for Fetal Origins: Health Capital vs. Health Deficits," Discussion Papers 17-11, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    14. Jon Anson, 2003. "Sex Differences in Mortality at the Local Level: An Analysis of Belgian Municipalities," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 19(1), pages 1-28, March.
    15. Strulik, Holger, 2021. "Intertemporal choice with health-dependent discounting," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 19-25.
    16. Manzoli, Lamberto & Villari, Paolo & M Pirone, Giovanni & Boccia, Antonio, 2007. "Marital status and mortality in the elderly: A systematic review and meta-analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 77-94, January.
    17. Holger Strulik & Volker Grossmann, 2022. "Life Cycle Economics with Infectious and Chronic Diseases," CESifo Working Paper Series 10141, CESifo.
    18. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Strulik, Holger, 2018. "Hungry children age faster," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 211-220.
    19. Shor, Eran & Roelfs, David J., 2015. "Social contact frequency and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis and meta-regression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 76-86.
    20. Yulei Gavin Zhang & Mandy Yan Dang & Hsinchun Chen, 2020. "An Explorative Study on the Virtual World: Investigating the Avatar Gender and Avatar Age Differences in their Social Interactions for Help-Seeking," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 911-925, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:10:p:1096-:d:112713. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.