[Health status of community-dwelling elderly with geriatric syndrome].
OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted in order to examine the prevalence of geriatric syndrome (falls, incontinence, depression, and under-nutrition) in community-dwelling elderly people, and to analyze the health status of the elderly with geriatric syndrome risk compared to those of a group not at risk.


METHODS
The subjects comprised 1,784 residents (769 men and 1,015 women) aged 70 years or more living in Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, who took part in the study. For this study, we divided the subjects into two groups: those with geriatric syndrome (n=688) and those without (n=1,096).


RESULTS
It was found that 33.6% of men and 42.4% of women had geriatric syndrome. Elderly with geriatric syndrome in both men and women had a significantly lower the proportion of subjects who perceived as 'healthy' in terms of the self-rated health, the higher-level functional capacity, higher prevalence of fear of falling, and decreased physical performance including handgrip strength and usual.maximal walking speed than those in the group who did not have geriatric syndrome. Logistic regression analysis showed that geriatric syndrome was associated with poor perceived self-rated health, a lower hemoglobin level and a slower usual walking speed in men, whereas in women it was associated with poor perceived self-rated health and fear of falling.


CONCLUSIONS
Elderly individuals with geriatric syndrome have significantly decreased health status and physical performance compared to those without geriatric syndrome.
Kwon
Jinhee
J
Research Team for Promoting Independence of the Elderly, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.
Yoshida
Yuko
Y
Iwasa
Hajime
H
Yoshida
Hideyo
H
Kim
Hunkyung
H
Sugiura
Miho
M
Furuna
Taketo
T
Suzuki
Takao
T
D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D013577:Syndrome; D014041:Tokyo / Q000453:epidemiology; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000453:epidemiology*