How frail are our elderly? An assessment with Tilburg frailty indicator (TFI) in a rural elderly population of West Bengal

CONTEXT: “Frailty” is a multidimensional geriatric syndrome that increases the risk for adverse health outcomes, such as falls, hospitalization, increased morbidity, and mortality, among elderly persons. AIM: The objective of this study is to find out the proportion of frailty and its associates among elderly (aged ≥60 years) in a rural area of West Bengal. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: It is a community-based cross-sectional observational study done during May–August 2018 among 165 elderly persons selected by systematic random sampling by probability proportionate to size method from three villages at the rural field practice area of our institute. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tilburg frailty indicator is used to measure frailty. An elderly is considered as frail if s/he scores ≥6 in this scale. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Data analysis is done by SPSS Version 16. The logistic regression is done to find out the associates of frailty. RESULTS: Proportion of frailty is 38.8% (mean age ± SD: 67.03 ± 3.43 years) among the study subjects. Age, female gender, loss of spouse, illiteracy, economic dependency, no job/at home status, ≥2 chronic diseases are significantly associated with frailty in univariate logistic regression. In multivariable logistic regression, ≥2 chronic diseases [AOR: 8.4, CI: 4.6, 11.33] and illiteracy [AOR: 3.3, CI: 1.05, 9.8] retain their significance. CONCLUSION: Frailty should be recognized as a public health priority and awareness generation among elderly population for healthy ageing including self-motivation for proper management of their ailments should be emphasized for reduction of morbidity as well as for augmenting their quality of life.