| Abstract |
Introduction: The “frailty syndrome” is a common condition of clinical weakness, which occurs mainly due to the increase of age; affecting an individual’s physiology. Prevalence of the frailty syndrome is expected to have been increased during the last years, mainly in regions like Iraklion city or several population sub-groups (eg. unemployed, homeless, uninsured).
Purpose: Purpose of this study was to assess the “frailty syndrome’’, quality of life and well- being among a selected economically vulnerable population of the city of Iraklion.
Methods: The sample was collected from the Social Space of the Municipality of Heraklion (Foundation A. & M. Kalokairinou). Participants were all adults (over 18 years old) that attended the Social Space (any of its services). The analysis was performed in the statistical package SPSS 20.0 (a = 0.05). A normality test was first conducted for all variables (Pvalue> 0.05). Therefore, parametric tests (chi-square, anova, t-test) were performed for variables that followed a normal distribution (Pvalue>0.05), whereas in the opposite case (Pvalue <0.05), non-parametric tests were selected (non-parametric chi-square, Kruskal Wallis, non-parametric t-test). All variables were tested in univariate and multivariate regression models.
Results: In a total sample of 314 participants, the prevalence of the syndrome was 9.5%, while for the pre-stage frailty syndrome it was around 18.4% (for both stages: 28.1%). These rates increase among the eldest adults (over 65 years) reaching the 55.5% (22.2% and 33.3% for men and women respectively). Age, marital status, way of living, accommodation of children (accommodation of children away from the respondents and participants without children), low income, years of smoking, alcohol consumption and the number co morbidities were related to “frailty syndrome”. For instance, exercise
Δημόσια Υγεία & Διοίκηση Υπηρεσιών Υγείας
Ιατρική Σχολή – Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης
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(OR=0.2, 95% CI= 0-0.4, Pvalue=0.01) and accommodation of the children in the same building or nearby/same area (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.1-0.7 and OR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.6-0.9, Pvalue < 0.001 respectively) presented a protective effect on frailty diagnosis.
Conclusions: “Frailty syndrome” has increased during the period of austerity both among elder adults and has appeared among younger adults. Therefore, the performance of effective and targeted interventions (for prevention and disease management) should be a priority in the city of Iraklion. This way, quality of life and wellbeing of unemployed, homeless and uninsured people will be improved.
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Το σύνδρομο ευαλωτότητας και η ποιότητα ζωής σε ένα επιλεγμένο οικονομικά ασθενή πληθυσμό στην πόλη του Ηρακλείου : ο ρόλος των κοινωνικό-οικονομικών παραγόντων και του τρόπου ζωής
