Linking social frailty to late-life obesity: the hidden psychological pathway

Abstract

<p><strong>Purpose</strong></p><p>The purpose of this study included identifying the prevalence of social frailty and malnutrition, examining the association of social frailty and malnutrition, and exploring whether such association was mediated by depressed mood among Chinese older adults.</p><p><strong>Method</strong></p><p>From May 2022 to June 2024, a total of 5286 older adults aged 60 or above from the JC Pathway to Healthy Aging were recruited in collaboration with three non-governmental organization, which covered eight districts in Hong Kong. Cross-sectional data on older adults’ social frailty, depression and malnutrition were collected using questionnaires. Pearson correlation test and mediation analysis were conducted while fully adjusted for all potential confounding factors.</p><p><strong>Results</strong></p><p>The results revealed that approximately half of the older individuals were either pre-social frailty (31.7%) or social frailty (16.3%). Also, the prevalence of at risk of malnutrition and malnourished were 14.2% and 0.6% respectively. Furthermore, the result confirmed the mediating role of depression on the relationship between social frailty and malnutrition in older adults. The mediating effect value accounted for 50.0% of the total effect. The identified pathway showed that overweight and obese individuals who experienced social frailty were more vulnerable to malnutrition through depressions than normal or underweight individuals. The mediating effect value accounted for 80.5%.</p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p><br></p><p>This study is the first to identify a specific path to understand the impacts of social frailty on older adults using a large-scale research study in Hong Kong. The result of the mediation models could provide insight on program planning. Social frailty is an important element to terminate the identified pathway of the association of social frailty and malnutrition through depression. Therefore, it is important to promote active participation in social activities among community dwelling older adults, as it may have a preventive effect on depression.<br></p>