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 Frailty is more often something considered when treating elderly
patients, but middle-aged patients may face some of the same
symptoms, the study team writes in the journal Occupational and
Environmental Medicine.
Physical frailty leaves many people out of work entirely, while
others take a lot of days off or struggle with physical demands,
especially in manual labor jobs, the research team writes.
“Lots of factors are encouraging people to work longer, but this may
not be feasible for those with major health problems and, depending
on circumstances, might be either good or bad for health,” lead
author Keith Palmer of the University of Southampton told Reuters
Health by email.
To examine the link between frailty and employment, researchers
recruited more than 8,000 people in their 50s and early 60s from 24
English general practices.
The participants completed questionnaires about their work, health
and home circumstances. In particular, the respondents answered
questions about five measures of frailty. These included
unintentional weight loss of more than 10 pounds over the past year,
physical exhaustion during the past week and slow walking speed or
inability to walk.
The measures also included physical activity levels - whether
respondents worked up a sweat during exercise in an average week -
and weakness of grip, assessed by the ability to open jars.
Overall, the researchers classified 4 percent of participants as
frail, based on having three to five of the frailty symptoms, while
nearly a third of participants were considered “pre-frail” because
they reported one or two of the frailty symptoms.
Frailty was tied to a large impact on employment. Three-quarters of
frail people were not working at all and 60 percent had left their
last job on health grounds.
Compared with non-frail people, frail people were 30 times more
likely to lose their jobs.
Frail people were nearly 11 times more likely to have been out of
work on prolonged sick leave in the past year, compared with healthy
workers.
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Frail workers were also over 17 times more likely to report needing
to cut down a lot on work in the past year, compared with non-frail
workers.
Workers considered to be frail were nearly 15 times more likely to
have difficulty coping with physical demands at work and to be
unsure if they would be able to continue work in two years.
The pre-frail workers were also at higher risk of bad outcomes
compared to healthy counterparts, but their risk was not as extreme
as that of frail people.
Frailty had the biggest impact on blue collar manual workers rather
than office workers, although the office workers still saw a
significant effect, researchers note.
“Older workers are more likely to be physically vulnerable than
younger workers,” said Lucie Kalousova, a researcher at the
University of Michigan who studies frailty among workers.
Despite this, frailty is preventable and can be reversed, said
Kalousova, who was not involved in the study.
“Though medical science is not yet fully clear on the best ways to
prevent frailty, it may be delayed or forestalled by regular
exercise and a nutritious diet,” Kalousova said by email.
Although it is difficult to pinpoint the causes of frailty, research
shows that for elderly people, exercise programs focused on balance
and strength and attention to diet can improve health outcomes,
Palmer noted.
“It is too early to say precisely what is needed in mid-life to
prevent frailty, but a reasonable bet is some combination of
exercise (to maintain muscle strength and balance) allied with a
suitable diet,” Palmer said.
SOURCE: bit.ly/2iXQQ86 Occupational and Environmental Medicine,
online January 6, 2017.
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