Quality of life and physical activity in prefrail individuals over 70 years in primary care

Victoria Castell-Alcala, María Prieto-Aldana, Alicia Gutiérrez-Misis, Rosa Julian Viñals, Christine Schwarz, Marta Gálvez-Fernández, Ricardo Rodríguez-Barrientos, Elena Polentinos Castro

Keywords: Pre-frailty, Quality of Life, Exercise, Aged, Primary Health Care, Sex.

Background:
Frailty is an increasing problem among the elderly people and it is more frequent in women. Literature reports that physical activity improves either the function and quality of life, but there is a lack of evidence regarding changes in pre-frailty individuals and differences between men and women

Research questions:
Is there an association between health related quality of life (HRQoL) and physical activity in a pre-frail population and what is the role of gender?

Method:
Descriptive cross-sectional study in pre-frail individuals over 70 years old in twelve primary care health centers carried out between 2018 Jun and 2020 March in Madrid, Spain. The studied variables were collected by clinical interview: Physical activity (Yale), HRQoL (EQ-5D-3L), sociodemographic and clinical variables (comorbidity, depression and pain). Descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression for the whole population and stratified by gender, using the quality of life as dependent variable. Funding: Grant PI 17/01887 (Carlos III Health Institute and FEDER)

Results:
The study involved 206 pre-frail individuals (152 women) with an average age of 78 years. Women had less comorbidity (32.3% versus 55.6%) but more pain (60.5% versus 44.4%) than men. 55.9% of the physical activity realized by participants was attributable to relaxed walk; women did more phisical activity than men (p>0,01). Mean HRQoL was 0.74 (CI95%:0.72-0.77) in utility score and 68.1 (CI95%:65.9-70.3) in the EQ-VAS. To walk more than 5 hours a week was associated with better quality of life by EQ-5D utility score (0.08, 95%CI: 0.03 to 0.14), and by EQ-VAS score (5.38, 95% CI: 0.25 to 10.51) when adjusted by age, pain and depression

Conclusions:
Physical activity was associated to better quality of life in a pre-frail population of individuals older than 70 years old. Women did more physical activity without finding differences in quality of life with men

Points for discussion:
Does sex influence the relationship between physical activity and quality of life in the pre-frailty population over 70 years?

Does pain influence quality of life differently in men than in women?

What is the role of the family doctor in promoting physical activity among older people?