Health and Behavioral Influences on Frailty among Elderly in Indonesia

Background: Frailty is a geriatric syndrome that is influenced by various stressors that can accelerate deterioration, morbidity and mortality and it is associated with fatigue, weight loss, muscle weakness, and decreased function. Objective: This study aimed to determine Health and Behavioral Influences on Frailty among elderly in population-based national survey in Indonesia. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design using data from the fifth wave of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS-5) conducted in 2014-2015. The participants in this study were 2,677 elderly individuals aged 60 years and above. The collected data include information about sociodemographic, independent variables including smoking, consumption of fruit, milk, eggs and vegetables, insomnia, self-report health, cognitive function, functional disability, and risk of depression. While the dependent variable is frailty. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the correlation between health and behavioral influences on frailty. Results: The total sample included 2677 older adults. There was a difference in the proportion of frailty between elderly women and men, with elderly women having a lower proportion of frailty (73.4%) than elderly men (85.6%). Elderly people living in urban areas have a higher proportion of frailty (52.17%) compared to those living in rural areas (47.83%). Variables of health-related behavior including smoking (AOR=1.54, 95% CI: 1.24-1.90, p<0.001), functional disability (AOR=1.56, 95% CI: 1.13-2.14, p=0.006) and risk of depression (AOR=1.86, 95% CI: 1.53-2.26, p<0.001), increasing the risk of frailty. Meanwhile, fruit consumption (AOR = 0.6, 95% CI: 0.42-0.88, p = 0.010) and milk consumption (AOR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.58-0.99, p = 0.049) decrease the risk of frailty. Conclusion: Variables of health-related behavior including smoking, functional disability and risk of depression increasing the risk frailty, meanwhile fruit and milk decrease the risk of frailty in the elderly in Indonesia.