Effect of different types of social support on physical frailty development among community-dwelling older adults in Japan: Evidence from a 10-year population-based cohort study

Purpose: Social support is associated with multiple positive health outcomes and is negatively associated with frailty in older adults. However, most evidence came from cross-sectional research. This study aimed to longi-tudinally explore the relationship between different types of social support and incident physical frailty. Materials and methods: A 10-year prospective cohort study data from the National Institute for Longevity Sciences - Longitudinal Study of Aging (NILS-LSA) database, from 2000 to 2012 on older adults aged >= 65 years were analyzed excluding those with physical frailty at baseline, missing data, or not attending follow-up. We measured three kinds of social support, whether from within or outside family members, including emotional, instru-mental, and negative support. The generalized estimating equation (GEE) model was used to examine the lon-gitudinal relationships between social support and subsequent frailty.Results: The final analysis included 466 participants, with an average age of 71.3 (standard deviation [SD], 4.3) years and 7.33 years of follow-up (SD, 3.11). GEE analysis showed that emotional and instrumental supports from within and outside family members were associated with a significantly lower risk of physical frailty (odd ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.80 [0.64-1.00] and 0.74 [0.58-0.95]; 0.77 [0.60-0.99] and 0.79 [0.63-0.99], respectively). Both negative support from within or outside family members had no significant relationship with the risk of physical frailty.Conclusions: This longitudinal study suggested that emotional, and instrumental support both from within or outside family members can reduce future physical frailty among older adults.