Self-rated health, social involvement and frailty in elderly outpatients

OBJECTIVES: To investigate relationships between global self-rated health and health referred to social comparison, biological frailty and social involvement indicated by advanced activities of daily living (AADL) in elderly outpatients. METHODS: 150 participants (60 years or more) without auditory, visual and cognitive deficits and satisfactory verbal communication were evaluated on their demographic characteristics, self-rated health, the criteria of frailty of Fried et al.22 and five AADL domains. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 96 women (m=77.2 years±6.7) and 54 men (m=76 years±8.5), stratified into three age groups, with prevalence of 70-79 years. Most rated their health as intermediate quality (50%) or good (31.8%). The most frequent AADL category was social. Men stood out for significantly higher performance in physical domain AADL; 56% of the elderly were classified as frail; 41.2% as pre-frail, especially for women and those over 70 years old. The frail elderly self-assessments showed worse health and health compared to others of the same age and worse AADL performance, especially for women and for those aged 80 years and more. CONCLUSIONS: The positive self-assessment of health plus the maintenance of positive social involvement are conditions to soften the impact of possible decrease in performance of complex activities of daily living in frail elderly outpatients.