Objective  To explore correlation between frailty and sedentary behavior, and its predictive value for frailty in community-dwelling elders.

Methods  A total of 265 elderly individuals who met the inclusion criteria were recruited as study objects. The frailty phenotype and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (long paper) were used to evaluate the frailty and sedentary behavior, respectively. The influence of sedentary behavior on the frailty of the elderly was analyzed, and its predictive value on frailty was explored.

Results  There were 66 frailty patients (24.91%) and 199 non-frailty patients (75.09%) in 265 elderly population in community. The average time spending in sedentary behavior was 380(330, 480) min per day. Compared with the no-frailty elders, the time of sedentary behavior in the frailty elderly was significantly increased480 (390, 600) minutes per day versus 360 (300, 420) min per day, P < 0.05. The area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.732(95%CI, 0.661 to 0.803, P < 0.001), the optimal accurate cut-off value for frailty was 435 min/day. Logistic regression indicated that after adjusting for age, the number of chronic disease, self-assessment of health status, education level, Activities of Daily Living (ADL) score, Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL) score, instrumental activities of Daily Living (IADL) score and Simplified Mental State Checklist (MMSE) score, the time spending in sedentary behavior greater than the values defined in the ROC curves was still the independent influencing factor for frailty and three individual components of frailty includingslowness, weight loss, and low physical activity (P < 0.05).

Conclusion  There is a correlation between sedentary behavior and frailty. The longer the sedentary behavior is, the more likely the elderly are to suffer from frailty. Actively improving sedentary behavior may be able to prevent the occurrence and development of frailty.