Frailty is the most common manifestation of serious health issues in the world, and it is becoming more prevalent worldwide as the aging population grows. Changes that occur in an individual during the aging process have physical, psychological, social, and environmental aspects that make an individual more frail. In China, older people may live in communities for aging individuals. This study aimed to describe the presence and severity of frailty and to analyze influencing factors among this population in China. The Frailty Index 35 (FI-35) scale, which includes 35 items in physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains, was used to investigate frailty. The FI-35 score ranges from zero to one, with a score closer to one indicating greater frailty. Biographical, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors were measured as potential determinants of frailty. We relied on the November 2017-February 2018 waves of the Chinese cross-sectional study survey that comprised a sample of 513 adults, aged 60 or older, who were living in China. Linear regression was performed to identify factors associated with FI-35 scores. We categorized the determinants of frailty into three models: Model 1: biographical variables; Model 2: biographical and socioeconomic variables; and Model 3: biographical, economic, and lifestyle variables. Frailty scores ranged from 0.00 to 0.89, with a median of 0.31, and the prevalence of frailty was 67.6%. The final model obtained after variable selection included age, minority status, marriage status, income, diet, and exercise. The adjusted R-squared indicated that the analysis explained 13.8% of the variance in frailty scores. Adding household, marriage status, education level, medical insurance, and income as elements in Model 2 explained 25.7%. Adding diet, smoking, drinking, exercise, and hobbies in Model 3 explained 27.9%. The degree of frailty varies considerably among Chinese community-dwelling older people and is partly determined by biographical, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors.
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Semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 12) were held to explore older patients’ motives of whether or not toperform self-management while hospitalized and to identify factors influencing self-management during hospitalization. These interviews were analyzed using the Quacol method. Self-management during hospitalization is operationalized as: collaboration with the nursing staff, having a proactive role, and having control over personal care. Three main themes, i.e., patients’ abilities, expectations and opinions, as well as their perceived behavior of nurses were identified along with eight influencing factors. Results indicate that older inpatients perform selfmanagement when they know that it impacts their recovery, when they perceive that a mistake is impending, when their own personal limits are exceeded, or when they are invited to self-manage by nurses.This study provides several suggestions for developing interventions to support patients’ self-management during hospitalization.
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Objectives: The aim of this scoping review was threefold: 1. to identify existing definitions of oral frailty and similar terms in gerodontology literature; 2. to assess the oral frailty definitions and analyze whether these are well formulated on a conceptual level; and 3. in the absence of existing definitions meeting the criteria for good conceptual definitions, a new conceptual definition of oral frailty will be presented. Methods: A search was performed in electronic databases and internet search engines. Studies explaining or defining oral frailty or similar terms were of interest. A software-aided procedure was performed to screen titles and abstracts and identify definitions of oral frailty and similar terms. We used a guide to assess the quality of the oral frailty definitions on methodological, linguistic, and content-related criteria. Results: Of the 1,528 screened articles, 47 full-texts were reviewed. Thirteen of these contained seven definitions of oral frailty and ten definitions of similar terms. We found that all definitions of oral frailty contain the same or equivalent characteristics used to define the concepts of ’oral health’, ’deterioration of oral function’, and ’oral hypofunction’. Between the seven definitions, oral frailty is described with a different number and combination of characteristics, resulting in a lack of conceptual consistency. None of the definitions of oral frailty met all criteria. Conclusion: According to our analysis, the current definitions of oral frailty cannot be considered ’good’ conceptual definitions. Therefore, we proposed a new conceptual definition: Oral frailty is the age-related functional decline of orofacial structures.
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