Research following more than 15,000 people in England has found that living in precarious social or financial circumstances is a key predictor of frailty in later life.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Harvard Medical School and the University of Strathclyde made the discovery using data from men and women aged over 50 taking part in a long-term study of ageing. The research received funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council.
Findings from the study suggest people living in socially vulnerable conditions are at greater risk of developing frailty, in some cases this might be decades earlier, than those with more stable circumstances, and can go on to accumulate higher levels of frailty as they age, the researchers say.
The study is published in Ageing and Society.
Visit: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ageing-and-society/article/later-life-precarity-and-longitudinal-frailty-trajectories-in-older-adults/5B3354CD48E207E441A8FB739208E2B8
