Frail Older Adults without Occupational Dysfunction Maintain Good Subjective Well-Being: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to clarify the relationship between frailty/occupational dysfunction (OD), both with and without, and subjective well-being among community-dwelling older adults. A total of 2308 (average age: 72.2 ± 5.1, female: 47.0%) independently living older adults in Kasama City, Japan, completed a self-administered questionnaire in November 2019. OD, frailty, and subjective well-being were assessed. Participants were classified into six groups: robust and healthy occupational function (HOF), robust and OD, pre-frail and HOF, pre-frail and OD, frail and HOF, and frail and OD. To examine the relationship between frailty/OD and subjective well-being, we performed an analysis of variance with subjective well-being as the dependent variable and with and without frailty/OD (six groups) as the independent variables. The results showed a significant association between with and without frailty/OD and subjective well-being in community-dwelling older adults. The subjective well-being of the pre-frail and HOF group was significantly better than that of the robust and OD group. Furthermore, the subjective well-being of the frail and HOF group was significantly better than that of the pre-frail and OD group. These results can be used to develop a new support method for frailty.