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PurposeResilience is a multidimensional concept determining healthy aging, however, there were limited studies examining the association between frailty and resilience in detail. In this study, we aimed to examine the association of frailty with three dimensions of resilience-strength, optimism, and tenacity among Chinese older adults.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 10,209 participants who were sampled by three-stage sampling method, from three cities in China from June 2020 to July 2021. The Chinese version of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) was used to measure resilience's 3 dimensions (strength, optimism and tenacity), which were converted into quartiles for the analysis. Frailty status was measured using the Chinese version of the FRAIL scale, categorized into robustness, pre-frailty and frailty. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine associations between frailty status with strength, optimism and tenacity.ResultsThe overall proportions of robustness, pre-frailty, and frailty were 42.7, 48.7, and 8.6%, respectively. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, self-rated health, and health behaviors, compared with older adults with the lowest quartile of strength, older adults with the second quartile (odds ratio, OR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.57–0.78), third quartile (OR = 0.60, 95% CI: 0.50–0.72), and fourth quartile (OR = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.46–0.73) of strength had lower ORs for pre-frailty, and who also had lower ORs (0.44, 95% CI: 0.33–0.58; 0.42, 95% CI: 0.30–0.59; 0.34, 95% CI: 0.20–0.56, respectively) for frailty. There were no homogeneous associations between optimism and tenacity with frailty status.ConclusionHigher strength was associated with lower chance of being pre-frail and frail among Chinese older adults. This finding implies that community-based training programs aiming to enhance psychological resilience, especially strength, may contribute to healthy aging. Future studies should examine the effects of resilience on frailty using longitudinal or experimental study designs in cross-cultural contexts.

PurposeFrailty is an emerging global public health burden. Most existing studies have focused on risk factors for frailty, focusing less on protective factors against frailty. This study aims to examine the association between the sense of coherence (SOC), the most common construct of salutogenesis and frailty status among community-dwelling old adults.MethodA cross-sectional study was conducted among 7,970 old adults aged ≥65 years in three cities in China from June 2019 to October 2020. Frailty was operationalised as the sum of self-reported fatigue, resistance, ambulation, illness, and loss of weight (FRAIL scale). The χ2 test was used to analyse the distribution difference of frailty in demographic, behavioural, and SOC levels. Confounder-adjusted multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the association between SOC and frailty.ResultsThe prevalence of pre-frailty and frailty was 43.1 and 8.0%, respectively. The results of the confounder-adjusted regression showed that older adults with moderate-level SOC (odds ratio, OR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.54–0.69) and strong-level SOC (OR: 0.55, 0.48–0.64) had lower odds of being pre-frail compared to those with weak SOC. It also showed that older adults with moderate-level SOC (OR: 0.32, 95% CI: 0.27–0.40) and strong-level SOC (OR: 0.22, 95% CI: 0.16–0.29) had lower odds of being frail compared to those with weak SOC.ConclusionSOC may be a protective factor against frailty. Improving SOC may be a strategy to prevent frailty among Chinese community-dwelling older adults.