Author(s): SHIBATA, M., ARAUCHI, K., MAENO, A., KIDO, S., HOSHINO, S., Institution: NARA WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY, Country: JAPAN, Abstract-ID: 2544

INTRODUCTION
Extending healthy life expectancy while maintaining and improving health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) is an important issue in Japan, a super-aged society. For independent living, preventing frailty is key (Kitamura et al., 2020). Moreover, prefrailty is more likely to return to robust than frailty (Kojima et al., 2019), so early detection is needed. We investigated how physical frailty affects community-dwelling elderly, focusing on the differences between robust and prefrailty, and analyzed both physical functions and HR-QOL in a cross-sectional study.
METHOD
Participants: 89 community-dwelling elderly (42 men and 47 women)
Measurements: (a) Frailty: The J-CHS criteria (Satake and Arai, 2020), which consist of five phenotype components (shrinking, low activity, exhaustion, weakness, and slowness). Frailty, prefrailty and robust were defined as including 3–5, 1–2 and 0 points, respectively. (b) Physical functions: the 5-meter walk test (5MWT), the grip strength, the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG), the Sit-and-reach test. (c) HR-QOL: the SF-36v2 (d) Demographic characteristics
RESULTS and DISCUSSION
Based on the J-CHS criteria, 27 elderly were classified as the prefrailty and 62 elderly as the robust (14 men and 13 women; 28 men and 34 women, respectively).
In both men and women, 5MWT and TUG were significantly slower in the prefrailty than the robust (men: t=-2.77, p=.006; t=-2.66, p=.006; women: Z=-2.56, p=.005; Z=-1.93, p=.027, respectively). The prefrailty walked about 20% slower than the robust. It means they walked about 12 meters less in a minute. This difference can affect daily activities. The grip strength was lower in the prefrailty, with a trend toward significance in men (Z=-1.64, p=.050) and a significant difference in women (t=2.26, p=.014). Bogen et al. (2019) reported that baseline muscle strength predicts walking ability two years later in elderly. Consistent with this, reduced muscle strength may contribute to decreased walking performance. Therefore, improving muscle strength can be an effective strategy to revert prefrailty to robust.
Compared with the robust, the prefrailty had significantly lower Physical Function (PF). (men: Z=-1.85, p=.033; women: Z=-3.171, p=.001). During the early stages of physical decline, elderly experience reduced physical aspects of HR-QOL. Furthermore, in women, General Health (GH), Vitality (VT), and Mental Health (MH) were significantly lower in the prefrailty than in the robust (Z=-2.57, p=.005; Z=-3.12, p=.001; Z=-2.01, p=.022, respectively). In women, physical decline affects not only physical function but mental aspects of HR-QOL.
CONCLUSION
We found that the prefrailty was associated with decreased walking ability, functional mobility, and muscle strength. Improving muscle strength can help prefrailty revert to robust. Regarding HR-QOL, even before frailty, physical decline is associated with poor physical aspects in both men and women, and with low mental aspects in women.