Background The Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) is widely used to predict negative health-related outcomes in older adults. However, the cutoff point for the detection of the frailty syndrome is not yet conclusive. Objective The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic value of the SPPB for detecting frailty in community-dwelling older adults. Design This was a population-based cross-sectional study focusing on households in urban areas. A total of 744 people who were 65 years old or older participated in this study. Methods Frailty was determined by the presence of 3 or more of the following components: unintentional weight loss, self-reported fatigue, weakness, low level of physical activity, and slowness. Diagnostic accuracy measures of the SPPB cutoff points were calculated for the identification of frailty (individuals who were frail) and the frailty process (individuals who were considered to be prefrail and frail). Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed. Odds ratios for frailty and the frailty process and respective CIs were calculated on the basis of the best cutoff points. A bootstrap analysis was conducted to confirm the internal validity of the findings. Results The best cutoff point for the determination of frailty was ≤8 points (sensitivity = 79.7%; specificity = 73.8%; Youden J statistic = 0.58; positive likelihood ratio = 3.05; area under the curve = 0.85). The best cutoff point for the determination of the frailty process was ≤10 points (sensitivity = 75.5%; specificity = 52.8%; Youden J statistic = 0.28; positive likelihood ratio = 1.59; area under the curve = 0.76). The adjusted odds of being frail and being in the frailty process were 7.44 (95% CI = 3.90–14.19) and 2.33 (95% CI = 1.65–3.30), respectively. Limitations The external validation using separate data was not performed and the cross-sectional design does not allow SPPB predictive capacity to be established. Conclusions The SPPB might be used as a screening tool to detect frailty syndrome in community-dwelling older adults, but the cutoff points should be tested in another sample as a further validation step.

Objective: To investigate whether abdominal obesity, dynapenia and dynapenic-abdominal obesity are associated to the prevalence of single or recurrent falls in older adults. Methods: We analyzed data from 1,046 community-dwelling participants of the SABE Study (Saúde, Bem-estar e Envelhecimento/Health, Well-Being and Ageing). Participants were classified as non-dynapenic/non-abdominal obese, abdominal obese only, dynapenic only, and dynapenic-abdominal obese based on waist circumference (>102 cm for men and >88 cm for women) and handgrip strength (<26 kg for men and <16 kg for women). Multinomial logistic regression models were ran to determine associations between dynapenia/obesity/dynapenicabdominal obesity and single/recurring falls, taking non-fallers as reference. Results: Abdominal obesity (RRR = 1.90 95% CI: 1.02-3.55), dynapenia (RRR = 1.80 95% CI: 1.02-3.19), and dynapenic-abdominal obesity (RRR = 2.06 95% CI: 1.04-4.10) were associated with a single fall. A stronger association for dynapenic-abdominal obesity compared to the other two conditions alone was found. Dynapenia was the unique condition associated with recurrent falls (RRR = 2.33, 95% CI: 1.13-4.81).

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Objectives to analyse the accuracy of grip strength and gait speed in identifying mortality; to compare the association between mortality and sarcopenia defined by the EWGSOP1 and EWGSOP2 using the best cut-off found in the present study and those recommended in the literature and to test whether slowness is better than these two definitions to identify the risk of death in older adults. Methods a longitudinal study was conducted involving 6,182 individuals aged 60 or older who participated in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Sarcopenia was defined based on the EWGSOP1 and EWGSOP2 using different cut-off for low muscle strength (LMS). Mortality was analysed in a 14-year follow-up. Results compared with the LMS definitions in the literature (&lt;32, &lt;30, &lt;27 and &lt; 26 kg for men; &lt;21, &lt;20 and &lt; 16 kg for women), the cut-off of &lt;36 kg for men (sensitivity = 58.59%, specificity = 72.96%, area under the curve [AUC] = 0.66) and &lt; 23 kg for women (sensitivity = 68.90%, specificity = 59.03%, AUC = 0.64) as well as a low gait speed (LGS) ≤0.8 m/s (sensitivity = 53.72%, specificity = 74.02%, AUC = 0.64) demonstrated the best accuracy for mortality. Using the cut-off found in the present study, probable sarcopenia [HR = 1.30 (95%CI: 1.16–1.46)], sarcopenia [HR = 1.48 (95%CI: 1.24–1.78)] and severe sarcopenia [HR = 1.78 (95%CI: 1.49–2.12)] according to EWGSOP2 were better predictors of mortality risk than EWGSOP1. LGS ≤0.8 m/s was a better mortality risk predictor only when LMS was defined by low cut-off. Conclusions using LMS &lt;36 kg for men and &lt; 23 kg for women and LGS ≤ 0.8 m/s, EWGSOP2 was the best predictor for mortality risk in older adults.

INTRODUCTION: Providing care to an older adult is an activity that requires considerable physical effort and can cause stress and psychological strain, which accentuate factors that trigger the cycle of frailty, especially when the caregiver is also an older adult. However, few studies have analyzed the frailty process in older caregivers. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of pre-frailty, frailty and associated factors in older caregivers of older adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted including 328 community-dwelling older caregivers. Frailty was identified using frailty phenotype. Socio-demographic, behavioral and clinical aspects, characteristics related to care and functioning were covariables in the multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: The prevalence of pre-frailty and frailty were 58.8% and 21.1%, respectively. An increased age, female sex, not having a conjugal life, depressive symptoms and pain were commonly associated with pre-frailty and frailty. Sedentary lifestyle was exclusively associated with pre-frailty, whereas living in an urban area, low income and the cognitive decline were associated with frailty. A better performance on instrumental activities of daily living reduced the chance of frailty. CONCLUSION: Many factors associated with the frailty syndrome may be related to the act of providing care, which emphasizes the importance of the development of coping strategies for this population.