title: Contribution of frailty markers in explaining differences among individuals in five samples of older persons.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There has been little research on the relative importance of frailty markers. The objective was to investigate the association among seven frailty domains (nutrition, physical activity, mobility, strength, energy, cognition, and mood) and their relative contribution in explaining differences among individuals in five samples of older persons.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from five studies of aging were analyzed using multiple correspondence analysis. Aggregation of frailty markers was evaluated using graphical output. Decomposition of variability was used to assess the relative contribution of each marker in each sample. Results were combined across the samples to assess the average contribution.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Frailty markers were found to consistently aggregate in each sample, suggesting a possible underlying construct. Physical strength had the highest contribution on average in explaining differences among individuals. Mobility and energy also had large contributions. Nutrition and cognition had the smallest contributions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results provide further evidence supporting the notion that frailty domains may belong to a common construct. Physical strength may be the most important discriminating characteristic.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community studies, Solidage Research Group, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sourial
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bergman
authors.forename: Sathya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karunananthan
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wolfson
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guralnik
authors.forename: Hélène
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Payette
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gutierrez-Robledo
authors.forename: Dorly J H
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Deeg
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Maria T E
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Puts
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Béland
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D015415:Biomarkers; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers