Frailty is an important and complex phenomenon in the fields of
geriatrics and gerontology and a highly relevant topic. Frailty syndrome (FS)
is a multidimensional clinical condition characterized by loss of physiological
and cognitive reserves across multiple organ systems. The Fried frailty
phenotype is the main model used to categorize FS. Recent studies have shown an
association between anemia, low hemoglobin concentration and frailty. This
study aimed to assess the association
between FS and anemia in community-dwelling elderly. An observational
cross-sectional design was used, with 308 elderly subjects. Most participants
were women (78.2%) between 60 and 69 years old (50.6%). The average schooling level was 9.7 years. Anemia was detected
in 9.7% of participants. The frequency of frailty, pre-frailty and non-frailty
was 8.2, 74.0 and 17.8%, respectively. The multivariate ordinal logistic
regression model identified low levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor
(BDNF) (OR = 0.9, 95% CI = 0.9; 0.9) as risk factor associated with FS.
No significant association was found between frailty and anemia. Moreover, FS
may be influenced by low schooling levels, despite the non-significant result
obtained in the statistical model. These findings contribute to elucidating
other factors associated with FS, especially in community-dwelling elderly.
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