title: Frailty Across Age Groups.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The implementation of an aging biomarker into clinical practice is under debate. The Frailty Index is a model of deficit accumulation and has shown to accurately capture frailty in older adults, thus bridging biological with clinical practice.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the association of socio-demographic characteristics and the Frailty Index in different age groups (from 20 to over one hundred years) in a representative sample of Mexican subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nationwide and population-representative survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adults 20-years and older interviewed during the last Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey (2012).
  
  
  METHODS
  A 30-item Frailty Index following standard construction was developed. Multi-level regression models were performed to test the associations of the Frailty Index with multiple socio-demographic characteristics across age groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 29,504 subjects was analyzed. The 30-item Frailty Index showed the highest scores in the older age groups, especially in women. No sociodemographic variable was associated with the Frailty Index in all the studied age groups. However, employment, economic income, and smoking status were more consistently found across age groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the Frailty Index in a representative large sample of a Latin American country. Increasing age and gender were closely associated with a higher score.
authors.affiliation: Carmen García-Peña Head of the Research Office of the Instituto Nacional de Geriatría, Periférico Sur 2767, colonia San Jerónimo Lídice, delegación La Magdalena Contreras, ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, México. Phone number: +52 55 55739087 e-mail: mcgarcia@inger.gob.mx.
authors.forename: M U
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Pérez-Zepeda
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ávila-Funes
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez-Robledo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: García-Peña
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors