Association between resilience and frailty in older age: Findings from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study

•Higher resilience was associated with lower frailty index level in older age.•The most frequently identified adversity in older age was personal illness.•Type of the adversity was related to the association between resilience and frailty. Resilience, a capacity to cope with adversity, has been linked to better functioning and health in older age. However, little is still known about resilience in relation to frailty. We explored whether resilience would be associated with frailty in older age and if we would observe differences in association between resilience and frailty according to the type of adversity. The study included 681 participants from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, born in Helsinki between 1934 and 1944. Adversities in older age and resilience were assessed between 2015 and 2018 with the Hardy-Gill resilience scale, scores ranging from 0 (low) to 18 (high resilience). Frailty was assessed in 2017–18 by using a deficit accumulation-based Frailty Index with a scale from 0 to 1. Adversities were coded into categories by using a data-driven approach. A linear regression analysis was used to explore the association between resilience and frailty. Resilience was inversely associated with frailty in older age (β -0.009, 95% CI -0.011 to -0.007, p