Objective: To estimate the prevalence of frailty and evaluate the relationship with the social determinants of health in elderly residents in urban and rural areas of Colombia. Methods: The SABE (Health, Wellbeing, and Aging) Colombia project is a cross-sectional study, carried out in 2014-2015, involving 24,553 men and women aged 60 years and older who live in the community in Colombia. For this analysis, we used data from 4,474 participants included as a subsample with grip strength measurements. The frailty syndrome was diagnosed according to the Fried criteria (weakness, low speed, low physical activity, exhaustion, and weight loss). The independent variables were grouped as (a) biological and genetic flow, (b) lifestyle (adverse conditions in childhood) (c) social networks and community, and (d) socio-economic, cultural and environmental conditions. Multiple logistic and linear regression analyses were used to assess the prognostic value of frailty for the outcomes of interest. Results: The prevalence of frailty was 17.9%. The factors significantly associated with frailty were older age, being women, living in rural areas, having low education, a greater number of medical conditions, insufficient current income, childhood health problems and a poor economic situation in childhood. Conclusions: Our results support the need to include frailty prevention programs, to improve the socioeconomic health conditions of infants to avoid future development of frailty.

Introduction: Self-rated health (SRH) has beeen considered an important marker of quality of life and an independent predictor of mortality in older adults. Objective: To determine the prevalence of poor SRH and identify risk factors associated with poor SRH among older adults residing in the Commune 18 of the city of Cali, Colombia, in 2009. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study with a single-stage cluster sampling design. Sample included 314 persons aged 60 and older. The dependent variable, SRH was dichotomized into good (excellent, very good, good) and poor (fair, poor). Independent variables were sociodemographic, biological, mental, functional and geriatric syndromes. Logistic regression was used for multivariate statistical modeling. Results: Overall, 40.1% reported poor SRH (women 42.9%, men 35.0%). Factors independently associated with poor SRH were diabetes mellitus, depression, fear of falling and frailty syndrome (frail and pre-frail vs. non-frail). Widowed men reported poorer health than married men while other marital status (single/separated/divorced) was associated with better self rated health in women. Conclusion: Potential modifiable factors such as depression and frailty syndrome are important determinants for poor SRH in Colombian older adults.

History of abuse (emotional, physical, or sexual) was strongly associated with falling in older adults living in Bogota. Further research is needed to confirm these findings and further delineate the independent effects of elder abuse on fall risk.

Objective To assess the relationship between discrimination and falling among older people. Methods A cross-sectional nationwide population-based face-to-face survey, 2015. The SABE ( Salud, Bienestar y Envejecimiento) Colombia Study, 19,004 community-dwelling adults aged ≥60 years. Recurrent falling was defined as ≥2 falls during the prior year. Main independent variable was discrimination. Results Multivariate logistic regression models showed that recurrent falling was significantly associated with a number of reasons for experiences of everyday discrimination (due to racial, socioeconomic status, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, or disability) (OR = 1.27, 95% CI 1.21–1.33), childhood discrimination score (never = 0 to many times = 3) (OR = 1.23, 95% CI 1.13–1.33), and number of situations for discrimination during the last 5 years due to skin color (group activities, public places, inside the family, or health centers) (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.08–1.17). Discussion Discrimination experiences were associated with higher odds of recurrent falling.