Objective

2

To explore the frailty prevalence in elderly community residents of Shanghai and its correlation with traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） deficiency syndromes of the five zang organs.

Methods

2

A total of 3，725 elderly individuals aged 60 and above were selected from 10 communities in Shanghai using stratified cluster random sampling between September 2018 and December 2021. The frailty phenotype （FP） assessment and the TCM syndrome differentiation model for deficiency syndromes of five Zang organs were used for analysis.

Results

2

①Frailty prevalence： Among the participants， 404 （10.85%） were classified as frail （FP≥3 points）， and 1，519 （40.78%） were pre-frail （FP=1-2 points）. The proportion of abnormal FP scores （FP≥1） was 49.55% in males and 53.36% in females， with no statistically significant difference （

P

>

0.05）. The abnormal FP proportions were 44.15%， 51.98%， and 79.47% for the 60-69， 70-79， and 80+ age groups， respectively， with significant statistical differences （

P

<

0.05）. ②Syndrome differentiation of TCM five zang-organ deficiency syndromes： The occurrence frequencies of 26 symptoms and 7 types of five zang-organ deficiency syndromes in the FP≥1 group were higher than those in the FP=0 group （

P

<

0.05）； in the FP≥1 group， the kidney deficiency syndrome， heart deficiency syndrome， liver deficiency syndrome， lung deficiency syndrome， and spleen deficiency syndrome accounted for 72.54%， 49.82%， 39.42%， 16.22%， and 16.02% respectively. ③Multivariate logistic regression analysis： 6 symptoms and 8

five zang-organ deficiency syndromes had statistically significant effects on abnormal FP （

P

<

0.05）. The top 3 symptoms with the greatest impact were weak feet， difficulty in standing for a long time or tendency to fall ［

OR

=1.867， 95%

CI

（1.483-2.352）］， slow or inflexible movements ［

OR

=1.706， 95%

CI

（1.252-2.326）］， and reluctance to speak or move ［

OR

=1.447， 95%

CI

（1.138-1.841）］. The top 3 syndromes with the greatest impact were kidney-yang deficiency ［

OR

=3.988， 95%

CI

（2.007-7.927）］， kidney-essence deficiency ［

OR

=2.942， 95%

CI

（1.190-7.276）］， and heart-qi deficiency ［

OR

=2.286， 95%

CI

（1.681-3.108）］.

Conclusions

2

The prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty among 3，725 elderly people in communities was 10.85% and 40.78%， respectively. Abnormal FP scores were correlated with TCM syndromes such as kidney-yang deficiency， kidney-essence deficiency， and heart-qi deficiency， as well as symptoms such as weak feet， difficulty in standing for a long time or tendency to fall， slow or inflexible movements， and being reluctant to speak or move.