Prediction of Physical Characteristics, Cognitive Function and Community Participation on Mental Health State of Frail Male Elderly Outpatients

Background: It has been pointed out that the elderly with frailty are more likely to be at risk of depression than the elderly without frailty. There are few researches that explored the predictability of physical characteristics, cognitive function, and community participation on the mental health state of male elderly outpatients with frailty. The purpose of this study was to explore the predictability of the basic attributes, physical characteristics, cognitive function, and community participation on the mental health state of male elderly outpatients with frailty. Methods: Through purposive sampling, the questionnaires were distributed and collected in the internal medicine clinic of a teaching hospital in northern Taiwan to include a total of 190 male elders as the cases of this study. The data collection included basic attributes, physical characteristics, cognitive function, community participation, and mental health state evaluation. Results: The results of the study show that scores of the male elderly with frailty were statistically different in mental health state in terms of age (t = –3.54, p < 0.001), domicile (t = 15.99, p < 0.001), income (t = 7.81, p < 0.005), self-perceived health status (t = 35.39, p < 0.001), drinking (t = 7.03, p < 0.05); left hand muscle strength (t = 2.15, p < 0.05), average muscle strength of both hands (t = 2.03, p < 0.05); in terms of physical characteristics between the instrumental activities of daily living total score (t = 5.03, p < 0.001) and instrumental activities of daily living scale grouping (t = 14.82, p < 0.001), and cognitive function score (t = 2.87, p < 0.005), as well as for community participation in Control (t = 2.57, p < 0.05), wholehearted devotion (t = 2.13, p < 0.05) and Community participation grouping (t = 5.66, p < 0.05). In addition, self-perceived good and normal health status (OR = 0.09, p = 0.004; OR = 0.12, p = 0.026), mild disability (OR = 4.74, p = 0.021), and mild dementia (OR = 0.18, p = 0.044) can all predict the mental health state of the elderly. Conclusions: Self-perceived health status, mild disability, and mild dementia could predict the mental health state of the male elderly with frailty and is worthy of attention.

frailty; male; physical characteristics; cognitive function; community participation; mental health state

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