title: Frailty and life satisfaction in Shanghai older adults: The roles of age and social vulnerability.
abstract: This study aims to examine the relationship between frailty and life satisfaction and the roles of age and social vulnerability underlying the links in Chinese older adults.
  
  
  
  Using a cross-sectional sample of 1970 adults aged 65 and older in 2013 in Shanghai, we employed regression analyses to investigate the interaction between frailty and age on life satisfaction in the whole sample and in different social vulnerability groups. Life satisfaction was measured using a sum score of satisfaction with thirteen domains. Using a cumulative deficit approach, frailty was constructed from fifty-two variables and social vulnerability was derived from thirty-five variables.
  
  
  
  Frailty was negatively associated with life satisfaction. The interaction between frailty and age was significant for life satisfaction, such that the negative association between frailty and life satisfaction was stronger among the young-old aged 65-79 than among the old-old aged 80+. Moreover, frailty's stronger association with life satisfaction in the young-old than in the old-old was only found among those in the 2nd and 3rd tertiles of social vulnerability, but not for those in the 1st tertile of social vulnerability.
  
  
  
  Relation between frailty and life satisfaction likely weakens with age. A higher level of social vulnerability enlarges the negative impact of frailty on life satisfaction with a greater extent in the young-old.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Work, School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, A501, #99 Shangda Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai 200444, China. Electronic address: ouyangfang2014@163.com.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: United Nations Population Division, Two UN Plaza, DC2-1910, New York, NY, 20012, USA.
authors.forename: Danan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Centre for Health Care of the Elderly-Suite 1305, 5955 Veterans' Memorial Lane Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 2E1 Canada.
authors.forename: Arnold
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mitnitski
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life; D035862:Vulnerable Populations / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Aged; Frail elderly; Personal satisfaction; Social vulnerability; Socioeconomic factors