Associations of social isolation, social participation, and loneliness with frailty in older adults in Singapore: a panel data analysis

BACKGROUND: There is a shortage of research evidence about how social isolation, social participation, and loneliness were longitudinally associated with frailty. This study was to 1) examine the associations of social isolation, social participation, and loneliness with level of frailty among community-dwelling older adults using panel data, and 2) explore the moderating effect of gender on the association of social isolation, social participation and loneliness with frailty. METHODS: The study included 606 participants aged 60 years and above from the longitudinal Population Health Index Survey conducted in Singapore. At each timepoint, level of frailty was determined using the Clinical Frailty Scale. Social isolation was assessed by the Lubben Social Network Scale-6, and loneliness was assessed using the three-item UCLA Loneliness Scale. Fixed-effects ordinal logistic regressions were conducted with level of frailty as the dependent variable and social isolation and loneliness as the independent variables, adjusting for time-varying socio-demographic, lifestyle, and health-related factors. RESULTS: Increase in social participation was associated with lower level of frailty (odds ratio: 0.96, 95% confidence interval: 0.93–0.99) and feeling lonely was associated with higher level of frailty (odds ratio: 2.90, 95% confidence interval: 1.44–5.84). Social isolation was not associated with frailty. Gender did not have moderating effect on these associations. CONCLUSIONS: This study observed that social isolation and loneliness had differential longitudinal association with level of frailty among community-dwelling older adults and suggested that loneliness and frailty should be measured and addressed concurrently among community-dwelling older adults. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-021-02745-2.