抄録
Difficulty in standing up from a chair is associated with weakness of the muscles of the lower extremity and is an important factor that indicates frailty in elderly people. Little is known about the factors that influence this difficulty among the elderly. To elucidate these factors, we studied 323 community-dwelling people from Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, who were aged 65 years and over. The body weight and height of the subjects were measured, and their body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 25 (kg/m2). The subjects were asked whether they experienced any difficulty in standing up from a chair (chair stand difficulty). Information on comorbidities, back pain, pain in any joint, and chewing ability was collected. The proportion of people who experienced chair stand difficulty increased with age (p = 0.061 for men and p = 0.005 for women). The results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that older age (odds ratio (OR): 2.16; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22-3.71), obesity (OR: 3.00; 95% CI: 1.47-6.14), pain in any joint (OR: 2.73; 95% CI: 1.42-5.26), and poor chewing ability (OR: 2.65; 95% CI: 1.33-5.28) were significantly associated with chair stand difficulty. Intervention to reduce the risk of frailty among the elderly would be decided on the basis of physical factors such as obesity, musculoskeletal pain, and chewing ability.
