Objective assessment of the association between frailty and sedentary behavior in older adults: a cross-sectional study

Background: Given the inconsistent findings of the association between frailty and sedentary behavior in older adults, this cross-sectional study investigated the aforementioned association using four different frailty criteria and two sedentary behavior indices in older adults. Methods: Data from older adults (age ≥ 65 y) who participated in health examinations or attended outpatient integrated clinics at a medical center in Taipei, Taiwan, were collected. Frailty was measured using the modified Fried Frailty Phenotype (mFFP), Clinical Frailty Scale in Chinese Translation (CFS-C), Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) index, and Clinical Frailty-Deficit Count (CF-DC) index; sedentary behavior was assessed with a waist-worn accelerometer. Adjusted linear regression ascertained the association between frailty and both sedentary behavior outcomes. Results: Among the 214 participants (mean age 80.82 ± 7.14 y), 116 were women. The average total sedentary time and number of sedentary bouts were 609.74 ± 79.29 min and 5.51 ± 2.09 times per day, respectively. Frail participants had a longer total sedentary time (odds ratio [OR]: 30.13, P =.01 and 39.43, P <.001) and more sedentary bouts (OR: 3.50 and 5.86, both P <.001) on mFFP and CFS-C assessments, respectively. The SOF index revealed more sedentary bouts among frail than in robust participants (OR: 2.06, P =.009), without a significant difference in the total sedentary time. Frail participants defined by the CF-DC index were more likely to have frequent sedentary bouts (OR: 2.03, P =.016), but did not have a longer total sedentary time. Conclusions: Regardless of the frailty criteria adopted, frailty was positively associated with the number of sedentary bouts per day in older adults. A significant correlation between frailty and total sedentary time was detected only with mFFP and CFS-C indices. Further research may target decreasing the sedentary bouts in older adults as a strategy to improve frailty.