Exploring health-related quality of life and frailty in older adults based on the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study

The study aimed to analyze the association between frailty and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) based on the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study.

In this cross-sectional study, 2905 adults aged 70 to 84 years were enrolled. Frailty was determined according to the Fried frailty index. HRQOL was measured using the 5-level EuroQol questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) and the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey version 2 (SF-12). Hierarchical linear regressions were conducted to examine the relationship between frailty and HRQOL and a logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate odds ratios of frailty status in the scores of the lowest quartiles in each scale.

Of the total respondents, 7.8% were frail, 47.0% were pre-frail, and 45.2% were robust. Frail respondents had significantly lower HRQOL scores than robust respondents, especially for EQ-5D-5L utility weights (0.74 vs 0.93). Frailty was strongly associated with decreased HRQOL in both physical and mental component summary of SF-12 (p < 0.001). Both pre-frail and frail states were related to greater odds of scoring in the bottom 25% of HRQOL scales compared to the non-frail state (p < 0.0001).

Frailty was associated with declined HRQOL in Korean older adults. This result recommends raising awareness about identifying and preventing frailty for better quality of life in the Korean elderly population.