Relationship between self-reported visual impairment and worsening frailty transition states in older people: a longitudinal study

Background Visual impairment (VI) may lead to worsening functional status and disability. Although disability is very difficult to reverse, it is usually preceded by frailty that may be reverted more easily. It is possible that VI is also related to frailty. Aims To assess the relationship between VI and worsening of the frailty status. Methods Data were taken from the Toledo Study for Healthy Aging (TSHA), a cohort study of community-dwelling people older than 65 years living in one Spanish province who were followed for 5 years. 1181 participants were included. VI was self-reported and frailty was operationalized using the Fried’s phenotype adapted to a Spanish population. Models of multivariate logistic regression were built to assess the associations. Results The mean age was 73.9 (Standard Deviation (SD) = 5 years) and 58.5% were females. Pre-frailty/frailty prevalence at baseline and follow-up were 41.2/5% and 36.2/12.5%, respectively, and VI was reported by 14.1%. After adjusting for age, gender, education level, tobacco consumption, type 2 diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, depressive symptoms and cognitive status, odds ratios for the development of frailty by VI were 2.5 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.5–4.4) for non-frail, 2.7 (95% CI 1.3–5.7) for pre-frail and 1.9 (CI 0.6–6.00) for robust participants. The frailty domains whose appearance was most increased by VI were slowness, low energy, low physical activity and weakness. Discussion Our findings support that VI worsens frailty in the early stages of its development (pre-frailty). VI impairs several frailty items at the same time. Conclusions Our study highlights the need to assess both VI and frailty for the prevention of frailty and disability in older people.