Association of food insecurity with physical frailty among older adults: study based on LASI, 2017-18.

BACKGROUND: Food security can be directly linked to nutritional status and either directly or indirectly, it has an impact on health status and well-being of the population. Physical frailty is one of the most important phenotypes used to understand the vulnerable nature of older adults. This paper examined the association between food security and physical frailty in older adults. METHODS: We used data from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI, 2017-18), wave-1. The sample size was 31,464 older adults aged 60 years and above. Physical frailty was assessed using the modified version of frailty phenotype proposed by Fried and colleagues. Multivariable logistic regression was used to establish the association between food insecurity with physical frailty. RESULTS: A proportion of 30.65% of older adults were frail in this study. Older adults with food insecurity had higher prevalence of exhaustion (12.1% vs 6.5%), unintentional weight loss (65.5% vs 5.1%), and weak grip strength (8.6% vs 7.9%) in comparison to their food secure counterparts. After adjusting for a large number of confounders, older adults who reported food insecurity had significantly higher odds of being frail [AOR: 2.68; CI: 2.26-3.19] in comparison to older adults with no food insecurity. CONCLUSION: The study showed that food insecurity is associated with physical frailty among older adults in India. It is suggested that food security programs in the country may be considered as an effective strategy to prevent physical frailty among older adults