Screening intrinsic capacity and its epidemiological characterization: a secondary analysis of the Mexican Health and Aging Study

OBJECTIVE. To describe the levels of intrinsic capacity and those factors related to its decline in Mexican older adults, using the Mexican Health and Aging Study. METHODS. This is a cross-sectional secondary analysis of the 2015 data of the Mexican Health and Aging Study, including adults aged 50 years and above. Selected questions were included to represent each domain of intrinsic capacity screening: cognition, depression, hearing, vision, anorexia, weight loss, and mobility. Sociodemographic characteristics, psychosocial factors, and health conditions were included to assess their association with intrinsic capacity. Further categories were established to assess not only individual characteristics but also different groupings. Along with descriptive statistics, multinomial regression models were performed. RESULTS. From a total of 12 459 adults aged 50 years and above, 54.7% were women and the average age was 71.2 years; 87.8% of the individuals had at least one intrinsic capacity domain affected, and mobility had the highest frequency (47.6%). All domains showed a trend of increasing with age and were higher among women. Self-rated health, chronic diseases, number of visits to a physician in the last year, and ≥2 affected activities of daily living were consistently associated with more intrinsic capacity domains affected. CONCLUSIONS. Decreased levels of intrinsic capacity in Mexican older people are associated with less schooling, self-rated health, chronic diseases, visits to a physician, and activities of daily living.