Developing and evaluating a frailty index for older South Africans-findings from the HAALSI study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

despite rapid population ageing, few studies have investigated frailty in older people in sub-Saharan Africa. We tested a cumulative deficit frailty index in a population of older people from rural South Africa.

Methods

analysis of cross-sectional data from the Health and Ageing in Africa: Longitudinal Studies of an INDEPTH Community (HAALSI) study. We used self-reported diagnoses, symptoms, activities of daily living, objective physiological indices and blood tests to calculate a 32-variable cumulative deficit frailty index. We fitted Cox proportional hazards models to test associations between frailty category and all-cause mortality. We tested the discriminant ability of the frailty index to predict one-year mortality alone and in addition to age and sex.

Re

SUBMITTER: Barker FJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8581379 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature