TY - JOUR
T1 - Physical frailty predicts medical expenses in community-dwelling, elderly patients
T2 - Three-year prospective findings from living profiles of older people surveys in Korea
AU - Son, J. H.
AU - Kim, S. Y.
AU - Won, C. W.
AU - Choi, H. R.
AU - Kim, B. S.
AU - Park, M. S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS and European Union Geriatric Medicine Society.
PY - 2015/10/1
Y1 - 2015/10/1
N2 - Background: With an aging population, medical expenses for elderly patients are increasing rapidly. Frailty is currently considered an important issue in geriatrics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of frailty on medical expenses in elderly Korean patients. Material and methods: Data were gathered from the 2008 and 2011 living profiles of older people surveys (from August 11, 2008 to February 20, 2012) and included 5303 community-living Korean men and women, aged 65 years or older. The five-item frailty index was comprised of items on weight loss, exhaustion, weak grip strength, slow walking speed, and low physical activity. Frailty data were extracted from the 2008 living profiles of older people survey, and out-of-pocket medical expenses data were extracted from the 2011 living profiles of older people survey. A generalized linear model was used to analyze the correlation between frailty and medical expenses after adjusting for sociodemographics, health behavior, and health status factors. Results: Baseline frailty assessments grouped patients as robust (43.3%), prefrail (49.3%), and frail (7.4%). After adjusting for sociodemographics, health behavior, and health status variables, frailty was found to increase out-of-pocket medical expenses (robust: ref., prefrail: b = 0.087 and P < 0.001, frail: β = 0.143 and P < 0.001). Conclusion: Our findings suggested that frailty is an independent predictor of increasing medical expenses in community-dwelling elderly patients.
AB - Background: With an aging population, medical expenses for elderly patients are increasing rapidly. Frailty is currently considered an important issue in geriatrics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of frailty on medical expenses in elderly Korean patients. Material and methods: Data were gathered from the 2008 and 2011 living profiles of older people surveys (from August 11, 2008 to February 20, 2012) and included 5303 community-living Korean men and women, aged 65 years or older. The five-item frailty index was comprised of items on weight loss, exhaustion, weak grip strength, slow walking speed, and low physical activity. Frailty data were extracted from the 2008 living profiles of older people survey, and out-of-pocket medical expenses data were extracted from the 2011 living profiles of older people survey. A generalized linear model was used to analyze the correlation between frailty and medical expenses after adjusting for sociodemographics, health behavior, and health status factors. Results: Baseline frailty assessments grouped patients as robust (43.3%), prefrail (49.3%), and frail (7.4%). After adjusting for sociodemographics, health behavior, and health status variables, frailty was found to increase out-of-pocket medical expenses (robust: ref., prefrail: b = 0.087 and P < 0.001, frail: β = 0.143 and P < 0.001). Conclusion: Our findings suggested that frailty is an independent predictor of increasing medical expenses in community-dwelling elderly patients.
KW - Frailty
KW - Korean elderly
KW - Medical expenses
KW - Out-of-pocket
KW - Population aging
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942824307&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.eurger.2015.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.eurger.2015.05.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84942824307
SN - 1878-7649
VL - 6
SP - 412
EP - 416
JO - European Geriatric Medicine
JF - European Geriatric Medicine
IS - 5
ER -