Frailty prevalence and association with health-related quality of life impairment among rural community-dwelling older adults in Vietnam

Measuring health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is critical to evaluate the burden of frailty in the older population.This study explored the prevalence of frailty among Vietnamese older people in rural communities, determined the factors associated with frailty, and examined the differences in HRQOL between non-frail, pre-frail, and frail people. A cross-sectional study was conducted on older adults (≥60 years old) residing in Soc Son district, northern Vietnam. Non-frailty, pre-frailty, and frailty conditions were evaluated using Fried’s frailty criteria. The EuroQol-5 Dimensions-5 Levels(EQ-5D-5L) instrument was employed to measure HRQOL. Socioeconomic, behavioral, health status, and healthcare utilization characteristics were collected as covariates. Among 523 older adults, 65.6% were pre-frail, and 21.7% were frail. The mean EQ-5D-5L indexes of the non-frailty, pre-frailty, and frailty groups were 0.70 (SD = 0.18), 0.70 (SD = 0.19), and 0.58 (SD = 0.20), respectively. The differences were found between non-frailty and frailty groups (p < 0.01), as well as the pre-frailty and frailty groups (p<0.01). After adjusting for covariates, the estimated mean difference in the HRQOL between the non-frailty and frailty groups was −0.10 (95%CI= −0.17; −0.02) (R² = 45.2%), showing a 10% reduction of the maximum EQ-5D-5L index.This study emphasized the high prevalence of frailty among older adults in the rural communities of Vietnam. Frailty was found to be associated with a small reduction of HRQOL in this population.