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.