Aim To evaluate the social, educational, health and behavioral predictors of physical functional decline in older Spanish adults. Methods Two-year longitudinal study based on 699 community-dwelling Spanish adults over 65 year-old participating in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement of Europe (SHARE). Several predictors of a combined measure of functional disability were examined using logistic regressions. Results A decline in function was experienced by 166 individuals. Functional decline in men was associated with increased number of chronic diseases (OR= 2.25, 95%CI 1.21–4.19) and depressive symptoms (OR= 5.05, 95%CI 2.42–10.54) over a two-year period, while among women it was associated with decreased numeracy score (OR= 1.88, 95%CI 1.05–3.34). Conclusions Longitudinal changes in predictors are strongly associated with longitudinal changes in function between baseline and a two-year follow-up, most clearly among men. A decrease in cognitive functioning and increased depressive symptoms are associated with a decline in physical functioning and can serve as useful clinical predictors to prevent disability in older Spanish adults.

Introduction Waist circumference (WC) constitutes an indirect measurement of central obesity in children and adolescents. Objective To provide percentiles of WC for Hispanic‐American children and adolescents, and compare them with other international references. Materials and methods The sample comprised 13 289 healthy children between 6 and 18 years coming from public schools of middle and low socioeconomic levels in different parts of Argentina, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela. The LMS method to calculate WC percentiles was applied. Sex and age differences were assessed using Student's t test and ANOVA (SPSS v.21.0). Comparisons were established with references from the United States, Colombia, India, China, Australia, Kuwait, Germany, Tunisia, Greece, and Portugal. Results WC increases with age in both sexes. Boys show higher WC in P3, P50, and P97. Comparison of 50th and 90th percentiles among populations from diverse sociocultural and geographical contexts shows high variability, not all justified by the measurement method. Discussion and conclusions Specific WC percentiles for sex and age, and P90 cut‐off points are provided; these values are potentially useful to assess central obesity in Hispanic‐American adolescent children.

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Background: Evaluate how obesity is associated with the development of frailty among older adults isimportant. However, few studies have examined the relation between obesity and frailty within differenteducational backgrounds. Objectives:This study aims to investigate the association between educational leveland frailty and to evaluate whether obesity explains any possible associations among Spanish adults. Design,participants and settings:This is a cross-sectional study including 2,319 50-years-old and older community-dwelling Spanish adults, who participated in the first wave (2004/05) of the Survey of Health, Ageing andRetirement in Europe (SHARE). Measurements:Educational differences in frailty phenotypes –defined by theSHARE’s operationalized criterion– and their association with obesity –estimated through self-reports of weightand height– were evaluated using multinomial logistic regression analyses. Results:Women experienced frailtyin a larger proportion than men (22.3% vs. 13.3%). After adjusting for all confounders, we found a markededucational gradient in frailty, where individuals with non-formal education showed increased odds of a frailtyphenotype than individuals with higher education. Moreover, obesity was significantly related to frailty and theeffect of obesity is similar at all levels of education after testing for interaction effects. Although there is amediation effect of obesity, the educational gradient in frailty is robust to controls for obesity. Conclusions:Ourfindings suggest a somehow independent effect of both educational background and obesity on frailty amongSpanish individuals. This adds to the evidence of the frailty-obesity association among different educationalbackgrounds, and has implications for future interventions leading to reduce health disparities in elders.

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