TY - JOUR
T1 - Symptom profiles, health-related quality of life, and clinical blood markers among korean community-dwelling older adults living with chronic conditions
AU - Park, Jongmin
AU - Lukkahatai, Nada
AU - Perrin, Nancy
AU - Kim, Yoonju
AU - Saligan, Leorey N.
AU - Won, Chang Won
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by a grant from the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korean Health Industry Development Institute, funded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HI15C3153) and National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education (grant number: 2019R1C1C1005519).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/2/2
Y1 - 2021/2/2
N2 - Older adults suffer from multiple symptoms, which negatively affects their health-related quality of life. The single-symptom management approach has been less than effective. The data of 2362 Korean community-dwelling older adults aged 70 and above were analyzed in the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study (KFACS) study. A cluster analysis, correlation analysis, and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. We found three symptom clusters: high symptom burden (HSB, n = 1032); pain and fatigue group (PAF, n = 566); and the sleep deprivation group (SDP, n = 764). Participants in the HSB group are more likely to be of old age (OR = 1.1), be female (OR = 2.4), live in a rural area (OR = 1.4), have low physical activity (OR = 0.9), and have multiple chronic conditions (OR = 1.5). The clinical blood markers analysis showed a negative relationship among the physical health, free T4 (r = −0.083, p < 0.01) and insulin (r = −0.084, p < 0.01). The sex-specific blood markers analysis showed differences among three clusters. While free testosterone (male: r = 0.124, female: r = 0.110, p < 0.05) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) (male: r = 0.352 and female: r = 0.134, p < 0.05) were associated with physical health in the HSB group, only free testosterone was associated with mental health (male: r = −0.093, and female: r = −0.116, p < 0.05) in the SDP group. These findings suggest the potential role of the patient’s sex and sex hormones in symptoms of Korean community-dwelling older adults. Understanding the symptom profiles and impact of biopsychosocial factors may enhance precision symptom management.
AB - Older adults suffer from multiple symptoms, which negatively affects their health-related quality of life. The single-symptom management approach has been less than effective. The data of 2362 Korean community-dwelling older adults aged 70 and above were analyzed in the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study (KFACS) study. A cluster analysis, correlation analysis, and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. We found three symptom clusters: high symptom burden (HSB, n = 1032); pain and fatigue group (PAF, n = 566); and the sleep deprivation group (SDP, n = 764). Participants in the HSB group are more likely to be of old age (OR = 1.1), be female (OR = 2.4), live in a rural area (OR = 1.4), have low physical activity (OR = 0.9), and have multiple chronic conditions (OR = 1.5). The clinical blood markers analysis showed a negative relationship among the physical health, free T4 (r = −0.083, p < 0.01) and insulin (r = −0.084, p < 0.01). The sex-specific blood markers analysis showed differences among three clusters. While free testosterone (male: r = 0.124, female: r = 0.110, p < 0.05) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) (male: r = 0.352 and female: r = 0.134, p < 0.05) were associated with physical health in the HSB group, only free testosterone was associated with mental health (male: r = −0.093, and female: r = −0.116, p < 0.05) in the SDP group. These findings suggest the potential role of the patient’s sex and sex hormones in symptoms of Korean community-dwelling older adults. Understanding the symptom profiles and impact of biopsychosocial factors may enhance precision symptom management.
KW - Biomarkers
KW - Chronic conditions
KW - Community-dwelling older adults
KW - Quality of life
KW - Symptom cluster
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U2 - 10.3390/ijerph18041745
DO - 10.3390/ijerph18041745
M3 - Article
C2 - 33670149
AN - SCOPUS:85100649237
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 18
SP - 1
EP - 12
JO - International journal of environmental research and public health
JF - International journal of environmental research and public health
IS - 4
M1 - 1745
ER -