Social frailty and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic among older adults in Japan: Role of home exercise habits

Objectives: We examined the association between social frailty and depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Additionally, we investigated whether home exercise habits moderated the impact of social frailty on depressive symptoms.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1,103 community-dwelling older adults (54.0% female, mean age [standard deviation] = 81.1 [5.0] years) from a semi-urban area of Japan who completed a mailed questionnaire survey in October 2020. Social frailty status was categorized as non-social frailty, pre-social frailty, and social frailty, which was assessed by financial difficulties, living alone, lack of social activity, and contact with neighbors. Depressive symptoms were defined as a Kessler 6 score ≥5. We performed a multivariable logistic regression analysis to examine the association between social frailty and depressive symptoms, and also conducted stratified analysis of home exercise habits during the pandemic.

Results: A total of 309 (28.0%) participants had depressive symptoms. Compared with non-social frailty, social frailty was associated with depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR] = 1.80, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = 1.16-2.79, p = 0.009). A similar relationship was observed in those who did not exercise at home (OR = 2.10, 95%CI = 1.14-3.84, p =0.017). However, no such relationship was observed in those who did exercise at home (OR = 1.50, 95%CI = 0.79-2.85, p =0.213).

Conclusions: Social frailty was associated with a risk of depressive symptoms during the pandemic. In addition, our findings suggested that home exercise may buffer the association between social frailty and depressive symptoms.