The impact of sleep duration on frailty in community-dwelling Turkish older adults

The aim of this study was to examine the association between sleep duration and frailty in community-dwelling Turkish older adults and to determine whether this association varies depending on gender. A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2013 to December 2013 with 905 individuals, representative of the aged population >= 60 years in community-dwelling elderly. Self-reported sleep duration was classified as short sleep duration (<= 6 h), middle sleep duration (6.1-8.9 h), and long sleep duration (>= 9 h). Frailty was assessed according to the FRAIL scale (FRAIL: Fatigue, Resistance, Ambulation, Illness, Low weight).The study included 905 community-dwelling older adults (447 male and 458 female). The median (25p-75p) age of the study population was 71.0 years (67.0-75.0) (range 60-92 years). The number of patients according to the short, middle, and long sleep durations were 120 (13.3%), 341 (37.7%), and 433 (47.8%), respectively. The median duration of sleep time in the total study population was 8.5 (7.0-10.0) h. According to frailty status, the percent of robust subjects was higher in the group with mid sleep duration than the other two groups (p = 0.020). Short sleep duration was associated with frailty in the female gender in both the unadjusted model (OR 2.80, 95% CI 1.42-5.52) and the fully adjusted model (OR 3.42, 95% CI 1.50-7.77). Short sleep duration is independently associated with frailty in community-dwelling Turkish female older adults, thus frailty prevention interventions should consider sleep duration in females.