Sleep disorders and the association with frailty among community-dwelling older adults in Northwest China: a cross-sectional study

Objectives To investigate the status of sleep disorders and their association with comprehensive frailty in the community-dwelling older adults.Design A cross-sectional study.Setting Six community healthcare centres in Xi’an City, Northwest China.Participants A total of 2647 community-dwelling older adults completed the study.Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcomes included frailty and sleep disorders, measured with the Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), respectively. The secondary outcomes were potential factors associated with frailty.Results The participants averaged 5.23±2.94 in the total score of the PSQI, with a poor sleep quality prevalence of 19.9%. Individuals with poor sleep quality are more likely to have mild and high frailty, with an OR of 1.64 and 2.81, respectively. Both shortened (8 hours) sleep duration are associated with higher level of frailty. Poor overall sleep, poor subjective sleep quality, extended sleep latency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medication and daytime dysfunction were associated with higher level of frailty (with a correlational coefficient of 0.237, 0.201, 0.223, 0.197, 0.087 and 0.378, respectively).Conclusion Sleep disorders are common problems among community-dwelling older adults, the severity of which rises with the increase in frailty level. Poor overall sleep quality, poor subjective sleep quality, extended sleep latency, sleep disturbances, daytime dysfunction and abnormal sleep duration are associated with frailty.