Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Frailty and sarcopenia in Bogotá: results from the SABE Bogotá Study

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Aging Clinical and Experimental Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Latin American countries like Colombia are experiencing a unique aging process due to a mixed epidemiological regime of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Aims

To estimate the prevalence of frailty and sarcopenia among older adults in Colombia and identify variables associated with these conditions.

Methods

Data come from the “Salud Bienestar y Envejecimiento” (SABE) Bogotá Study, a cross-sectional study conducted in 2012 in Bogotá, Colombia. Sociodemographic, health, cognitive and anthropometric measures were collected from 2000 community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and older. Frailty variable was created using the Fried phenotype and sarcopenia following the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People algorithm. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with frailty and sarcopenia.

Results

A total of 135 older adults are frail (9.4 %), while 166 have sarcopenia (11.5 %). Older age and female gender have a significant association with both conditions (Frailty: Age OR 1.05, 95 % CI 1.03–1.06, Gender OR 1.44, 95 % CI 1.12–1.84; Sarcopenia: Age 1.04, 95 % CI 1.02–1.07, Gender OR 1.51, 95 % CI 1.05–2.17). Depression was also significantly associated with frailty (OR 1.17, 95 % CI 1.12–1.22), while smoking was significantly associated with sarcopenia (OR 2.38, 95 % CI 1.29–4.37). Finally, higher function, measured by independence in IADL (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) was significantly associated with less frailty (OR 0.74, 95 % CI 0.64–0.86). Education, higher number of comorbidities, better MMSE score, activities of daily living disability and alcohol consumption were not significantly associated with frailty or sarcopenia.

Conclusions

Frailty, sarcopenia and multimorbidity are overlapping, yet distinct conditions in this sample. There are potentially reversible factors that are associated with frailty and sarcopenia in this sample. Future studies need to analyze the best way to prevent these conditions, and examine individuals that have frailty, sarcopenia and comorbidities to design interventions to improve their quality of life.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Abellan Van Kan G, Rolland Y, Bergman H et al (2008) The I.A.N.A task force on frailty assessment of older people in clinical practice. J Nutr Health Aging 12:29–37

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Bauer JM, Sieber CC (2008) Sarcopenia and frailty: a clinician’s controversial point of view. Exp Gerontol 43:674–678. doi:10.1016/j.exger.2008.03.007

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Baumgartner R, Koehler KM, Gallagher D et al (1998) Epidemiology of sarcopenia among the elderly in New Mexico. Am J Epidemiol 147:755–763

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Faber MJ, Bosscher RJ, Paw MJCA et al (2006) Effects of exercise programs on falls and mobility in frail and pre-frail older adults: a multicenter randomized controlled trial. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 87:885–896

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Abellan Van Kan G, Rolland YM, Morley JE et al (2008) Frailty: toward a clinical definition. J Am Med Dir Assoc 9:71–72

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Bergman H, Hogan DB, Karunananthan S (2008) Frailty: a clinically relevant concept? Can J Geriatr 11:124–129

    Google Scholar 

  7. Fried LP, Walston JD (1998) Frailty and failure to thrive. In: Hazzard WR, Blass JP, Ettinger WH Jr, Halter JB, Ouslander J (eds) Principles of geraitric medicine and gerontology, vol 4. McGraw Hill, New York, pp 1387–1402

    Google Scholar 

  8. Walston J, Hadley EC, Ferrucci L et al (2006) Research agenda for frailty in older adults: toward a better understanding of physiology and etiology: summary from the American Geriatrics Society/National Institute on Aging Research Conference on Frailty in Older Adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 54:991–1001

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Bergman H, Ferrucci L, Guralnik J et al (2007) Frailty: an emerging research and clinical paradigm–issues and controversies. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 62:731–737

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Fried LP, Tangen CM, Walston JD et al (2001) Frailty in older adults: evidence for a phenotype. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 56:M146–M156

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Ottenbacher KJ, Graham JE, Al Snih S et al (2009) Mexican Americans and frailty: findings from the Hispanic established populations epidemiologic studies of the elderly. Am J Public Health 99:673–679

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Rockwood K, Fox RA, Stolee P et al (1994) Frailty in elderly people: an evolving concept. CMAJ 150:489–495

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Al Snih S, Graham JE, Ray LA et al (2009) Frailty and incidence of activities of daily living disability among older Mexican Americans. J Rehabil Med 41:892–897

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Alvarado BE, Zunzunegui MV, Beland F et al (2008) Life course social and health conditions linked to frailty in Latin American older men and women. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 63:1399–1406

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Cesari M, Leeuwenburgh C, Lauretani F et al (2006) Frailty syndrome and skeletal muscle: results from the Invecchiare in Chianti study. Am J Clin Nutr 83:1142–1148

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Marcell TJ (2003) Sarcopenia: causes, consequences, and preventions. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 58:M911–M916

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Morley JE (2008) Sarcopenia: diagnosis and treatment. J Nutr Health Aging 12:452–456

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Studenski SA, Peters KW, Alley DE et al (2014) The FNIH sarcopenia project: rationale, study description, conference recommendations, and final estimates. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 69:547–558. doi:10.1093/gerona/glu010

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Cruz-Jentoft AJ, Baeyens JP, Bauer JM et al (2010) Sarcopenia: European consensus on definition and diagnosis: Report of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People. Age Ageing 39:412–423. doi:10.1093/ageing/afq034

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Cesari M, Colloca G, Zamboni V et al (2008) Sarcopenia and frailty in older women. In: Benninghouse BT, Rosset AG (eds) Women and aging: new research, 1st edn. Nova Science Publishers Inc, Hauppage

    Google Scholar 

  21. Cruz-Jentoft AJ (2013) Perspective: protein and exercise for frailty and sarcopenia: still learning. J Am Med Dir Assoc 14:69–71

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Palloni A, Pinto-Aguirre G, Pelaez M (2002) Demographic and health conditions of ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean. Int J Epidemiol 31:762–771

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Samper-Ternent R, Michaels-Obregon A, Wong R et al (2012) Older adults under a mixed regime of infectious and chronic diseases. Salud Publ Mex 54:487–495

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Arango-Lopera VE, Arroyo P, Gutierrez-Robledo LM et al (2013) Mortality as an adverse outcome of sarcopenia. J Nutr Health Aging 17:259–262

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Garcia-Gonzalez JJ, Garcia-Pena C, Franco-Marina F et al (2009) A frailty index to predict the mortality risk in a population of senior Mexican adults. BMC Geriatr 9:47

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Perez-Zepeda MU, Gutierrez-Robledo LM, Arango-Lopera VE (2013) Sarcopenia prevalence. Osteoporos Int 24:797

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Rockwood K, Mitnitski A (2007) Frailty in relation to the accumulation of deficits. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 62:722–727

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Albala C, Lebrao ML, Leon Diaz EM et al (2005) The Health, Well-Being, and Aging (“SABE”) survey: methodology applied and profile of the study population. Rev Panam Salud Publ 17:307–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Alley DE, Shardell MD, Peters KW et al (2014) Grip strength cutpoints for the identification of clinically relevant weakness. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 69:559–566. doi:10.1093/gerona/glu011

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Ottenbacher KJ, Ostir GV, Peek MK et al (2005) Frailty in older mexican americans. J Am Geriatr Soc 53:1524–1531

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Stewart AL, Mills KM, King AC et al (2001) CHAMPS physical activity questionnaire for older adults: outcomes for interventions. Med Sci Sports Exerc 33:1126–1141

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Avila-Funes JA, Pina-Escudero SD, Aguilar-Navarro S et al (2011) Cognitive impairment and low physical activity are the components of frailty more strongly associated with disability. J Nutr Health Aging 15:683–689

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Yesavage JA, Brink TL, Rose TL et al (1982) Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: a preliminary report. J Psychiatr Res 17:37–49

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Mahoney FI, Barthel DW (1965) Functional Evaluation: the Barthel Index. Md State Med J 14:61–65

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Barberger-Gateau P, Commenges D, Gagnon M et al (1992) Instrumental activities of daily living as a screening tool for cognitive impairment and dementia in elderly community dwellers. J Am Geriatr Soc 40:1129–1134

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Runzer-Colmenares FM, Samper-Ternent R, Al Snih S et al (2014) Prevalence and factors associated with frailty among Peruvian older adults. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 58:69–73. doi:10.1016/j.archger.2013.07.005

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Morley JE, Vellas B, van Kan GA et al (2013) Frailty consensus: a call to action. J Am Med Dir Assoc 14:392–397. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2013.03.022

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Chavarro-Carvajal D, Reyes-Ortiz C, Samper-Ternent R et al (2015) Nutritional assessment and factors associated to malnutrition in older adults: a cross-sectional study in Bogota Colombia. J Aging Health 27:304–319. doi:10.1177/0898264314549661

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Hughes LD, McMurdo ME, Guthrie B (2013) Guidelines for people not for diseases: the challenges of applying UK clinical guidelines to people with multimorbidity. Age Ageing 42:62–69. doi:10.1093/ageing/afs100

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Kadam UT, Croft PR (2007) Clinical multimorbidity and physical function in older adults: a record and health status linkage study in general practice. Fam Pract 24:412–419

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Wolff JL, Starfield B, Anderson G (2002) Prevalence, expenditures, and complications of multiple chronic conditions in the elderly. Arch Intern Med 162:2269–2276

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Boyd CM, Darer J, Boult C et al (2005) Clinical practice guidelines and quality of care for older patients with multiple comorbid diseases: implications for pay for performance. JAMA 294:716–724

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Miguel Borda MD, and Antonio Arciniegas MD, for their feedback and help with editorial aspects of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rafael Samper-Ternent.

Ethics declarations

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation—Colciencias in Colombia, Code 120354531692 and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest for the current manuscript.

Statement of human and animal rights

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana institutional review board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Samper-Ternent, R., Reyes-Ortiz, C., Ottenbacher, K.J. et al. Frailty and sarcopenia in Bogotá: results from the SABE Bogotá Study. Aging Clin Exp Res 29, 265–272 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-016-0561-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-016-0561-2

Keywords

Navigation