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The relationship between self-reported physical frailty and sensor-based physical activity measures in older adults – a multicentric cross-sectional study

S. Schmidle, P. Gulde, R. Koster, C. Soaz, J. Hermsdörfer

BMC Geriatrics, 2023

88 participants · 13 citations

Abstract

Background The decline in everyday life physical activity reflects and contributes to the frailty syndrome. While especially self-reported frailty assessments have the advantage of reaching large groups at low costs, little is known about the relationship between the self-report and objective measured daily physical activity behavior. The main objective was to evaluate whether and to what extent a self-reported assessment of frailty is associated with daily physical activity patterns. Methods Daily activity data were obtained from 88 elderly participants (mean 80.6 ± 9.1 years) over up to 21 days. Acceleration data were collected via smartwatch. According to the results of a self-report frailty questionnaire, participants were retrospectively split up into three groups, F (frail, n = 43), P (pre-frail, n = 33), and R (robust, n = 12). Gait- and activity-related measures were derived from the built-in step detector and acceleration sensor and comprised, i.a., standard deviation of 5-s-mean amplitude deviation (MADstd), median MAD (MADmedian), and the 95th percentile of cadence (STEP95). Parameters were fed into a PCA and component scores were used to derive behavioral clusters. Results The PCA suggested two components, one describing gait and one upper limb activity. Mainly gait related parameters showed meaningful associations with the self-reported frailty score (STEP95: R 2 = 0.25), while measures of upper limb activity had lower coefficients (MADmedian: R 2 = 0.07).…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cross-sectional, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause. Reported size: 88 participants or records.

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