Prevalence and factor associated with frailty and happiness score among the elderly residents of urban slums of Bhubaneswar: A cross-sectional study

Background: Morbidities among ageing population is an emerging public health challenge, particularly in urban slums where elderly face socio-economic deprivation and limited healthcare access. Frailty is a multidimensional geriatric syndrome; being related to the subjective well-being of a person and is reflected through happiness scores. The objectives of the study was to assess the prevalence and determinants of frailty, estimate happiness scores, assess the self-rated health status and find out the association between frailty and happiness scores among geriatric individuals residing in urban slums of Bhubaneswar. Material & Methods: This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 160 elderly participants selected through simple random sampling. To assess frailty Fried’s phenotype was used, for happiness score Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was used and for self-rated health a five-point scale was used. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Chi-square and f-test and logistic regression were used. P value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Prevalence of frailty was 28.12%, pre-frailty was 49.37% and 22.51% were robust. Mean happiness score was 03.56±0.32; 96.25% had moderate happiness and 3.75% had high happiness scores. Around 61(38.12%) of the study participants had poor, 81(50.62%) had fair and 18(11.26%) had good self-assessed health. Frailty status showed statistically significant association with socio-economic status, engagement in household activities and happiness score. Higher happiness scores were independently associated with lower odds of frailty (adjusted OR=29.43; p<0.05). Conclusion: Frailty and pre-frailty was found to be high among the study population. It was significantly associated with happiness scores, some socio-demographic and health-related variables.