Table 4.
Characteristics of community-dwelling older adults from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (2021) stratified by frailty phenotype category (N = 2,510)
| Total | Robust | Pre-frail | Pre-frail/Frail undecided (excluded from analytic sample) | Frail | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of observations, n (%) | 2,510 (100) | 764 (30) | 1,173 (47) | 149 (6) | 424 (17) | |
| Age, mean (SD) | 81.1 (6.1) | 79.1 (5.1) | 81.5 (6.1) | 81.5 (6.0) | 83.4 (6.5) | < 0.001 |
| Female, n (%) | 1,405 (56.0) | 390 (51.0) | 654 (55.8) | 91 (61.1) | 270 (63.7) | < 0.001 |
| Race/ethnicity, n, (%) | < 0.001 | |||||
| White | 1,855 (73.9) | 621 (81.3) | 867 (73.9) | 93 (62.4) | 274 (64.6) | |
| Black | 489 (19.5) | 101 (13.4) | 230 (19.6) | 43 (28.9) | 114 (26.9) | |
| Othera | 166 (6.6) | 41 (5.4) | 76 (6.5) | 13 (8.7) | 36 (8.5) | |
| Educational attainment, n, (%) | < 0.001 | |||||
| Less than high school | 380 (15.1) | 61 (8.0) | 180 (15.3) | 40 (26.8) | 99 (23.3) | |
| High school | 647 (25.8) | 164 (21.5) | 306 (26.1) | 48 (32.2) | 129 (30.4) | |
| Some college | 692 (27.6) | 214 (28.0) | 326 (27.8) | 37 (24.8) | 115 (27.1) | |
| College or more | 791 (31.5) | 325 (42.5) | 361 (30.8) | 24 (16.1) | 81 (19.1) | |
| Total reported income, mean (SD) | 67556.6 (149107.4) | 86447.1 (97199.4) | 65213.0 (189229.5) | 57956.7 (151567.9) | 43375.4 (79397.1) | < 0.001 |
| Hearing aid use, n, (%) | 566 (22.5) | 192 (25.1) | 266 (22.7) | 33 (22.1) | 75 (17.7) | 0.034 |
| Body Mass Index (kg/m2), mean (SD) | 27.7 (6.1) | 27.5 (4.9) | 27.5 (5.8) | 30.6 (10.4) | 27.9 (6.7) | < 0.001 |
| Hypertension, n (%) | 1,915 (76.3) | 529 (69.2) | 901 (76.8) | 132 (88.6) | 353 (83.3) | < 0.001 |
| Diabetes, n (%) | 759 (30.2) | 172 (22.5) | 350 (29.8) | 68 (45.6) | 169 (39.9) | < 0.001 |
| Stroke, n (%) | 49 (2.0) | 6 (0.8) | 22 (1.9) | 4 (2.7) | 17 (4.0) | 0.002 |
| Hearing loss categories | < 0.001 | |||||
| No hearing loss (≤ 25 dB HL) | 677 (27.0) | 271 (35.5) | 291 (24.8) | 40 (26.8) | 75 (17.7) | |
| Mild hearing loss (26–40 dB HL) | 916 (36.5) | 288 (37.7) | 428 (36.5) | 56 (37.6) | 144 (34.0) | |
| Moderate or greater hearing loss (> 40 dB HL) | 917 (36.5) | 205 (26.8) | 454 (38.7) | 53 (35.6) | 205 (48.3) |
aOther: Hispanic and non-Hispanic American Indian, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander