The purposes of this study were to categorize the elderly of a local community into the frail and
non-frail groups based on the definitions of frailty and to compare the two groups in terms of physical
functions, health-related quality of life and ego-integrity. It also aimed to examine the physical, emotional,
and sociopsychological characteristics of the frail elderly and to provide basic data to prevent the state of
frailty and monitor the frail elderly. Data were gathered from December23, 2008, to January 10. 2009,
and research design followed that of a descriptive study. And a structured questionnaire was filled out by
196 elderly people that were aged 65 or older and visited one of 14 halls for aged in D Metropolitan
City. The result of survey can be summarized as follows
1. Of the 191 subjects, 37.2% were categorized into the frail group and 62.8% into the non-frail
group according to the definitions of frailty.
2. The mean numer of chronic diseaes the frai and non-frail elderly had was 2.17 and 1.59,
respectively, which means the frail elderly had significantly more chronic diseases than the non-frai
elderly(t=3,68, p=0.000). And there were significant differences between the two groups in subjective
health state(p=0.000), walking exercise(p=0.000), flexibility exercise(p=0.000) and muscle exercise
(p=0.000).
3. As for the physical functions significant differences were also observed beween them in physical
performance(p=0.000), grip strength(p=0.000), walking speed(p=0.000), eye sight(p=0.000), and
chewing(p=0.000). The frail elderly significantly more ADL/LADL items than the the non-frail
elderly(p=0.000).
4. As for health-related quality of life, statistically significant differences were also found between the
two groups in mobility(p=0.000). The mean total scores of health condition were 47.89 and 81.58 for the frail and non-frail elderly, respectively, which means the former group significantly lower than the latter
group(p=0.000). In short,37% of the elderly of the local community turned out to be frail and were
lower than the non-frail elderly in terms of health condition, physical functions, health-related quality of
life, and ego-integrity. Thus there is a need to identify the frail elderly in a community, understand them
in the physical, emotional, and sociopsychological aspects, and provide them with proper interventions to
prevent frailty and monitor the frail elderly.