Prevalence and associated factors of the frailty among community-dwelling elders in Sermngam district, Lampang province

Abstract

This research was a cross-sectional study. That aimed to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with the frailty of community-dwelling elders in the Sermngam district of the Lampang province. The study used a multi-stage sampling. The sample consisted of 314 eders. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire consisting of 3 parts, the first part was concerned with personal information; the second part was about the factors related to frailty; and the third part was older frailty assessments (FiND Questionnaire). This content validity index (CVI) of this question are was 0.8 and the correlation coefficient Cronbach’s alpha of part 3 was 0.89. The prevalence of frailty and factors associated with frailty analyzed by descriptive statistics analyzed by Chi-square, Fisher’s Exact test, The research found that the prevalence of frailty was 26.4 percent and the proportion of frailty in males more than females (30.4 and 23.3 percent). Age range with frailty found the highest group in aged 60-69 years and found in males more than females (31.9 and 27.8 percent). The prevalence of disability was 30.3 percent, the proportion of disability was higher in females than males (33.35 and 26.8). The age range with the higest rate of disability in aged over 80 years and found in females more than males (47.4% and 37.5%) factors associated with frailty were statistically significant at level of 0.05 were personal factors such as level of education, physical factors such as their level at health over the past one month compared to their current health status, chronic diseases, and psychological factors and perceptions, including dementia in older adults who have completed primary education.