Incidence Rates of Disability and Its Associated Factors among Korean Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Background: we aimed to identify incidence rates of disability and its associated factors among korean community-dwelling older adults. methods: the sample included 1,739 koreans aged over 65 yr from the korean longitudinal study of aging (2006-2016) who reported no limitations in activities of daily living (adl) or instrumental activities of daily living (iadl) at baseline (2006) and had complete data for other covariates. adl, iadl, socio-demographic, lifestyle, and health-condition data were collected and analyzed using multiple logistic regression models. results: the 10-yr incidence rates of adl and iadl disability in subjects with no disability at baseline were 11.6% and 21.6%, respectively. after adjusting for socio-demographic, lifestyle, and health-condition factors, the incidence of adl disability was higher in women (odds ratio [or] =1.418, 95% confidence interval [ci]=1.102-2.613) and increased with age (or=1.170, 95% ci=1.133-1.208), multi-morbidity (or=1.194, 95% ci=1.015-1.406), and obesity (or=1.563, 95% ci=1.057-2.311). it decreased in subjects living alone (or=0.531, 95% ci=0.328-0.856). the incidence of iadl disability increased with age (or=1.131, 95% ci=1.102-1.161), multi-morbidity (or=1.199, 95% ci=1.054-1.365), and cognitive disability (or=1.422, 95% ci=1.083-1.866) and decreased for subjects living alone (or=0.484, 95% ci=0.328-0.715) and with overweight (or=0.725, 95% ci=0.532-0.988). conclusion: incidence rates of disability differed considerably based on socio-demographic, lifestyle, and health-condition factors. these results suggest the importance of identifying factors that can decrease the risk of disability in this group and of prevention efforts in populations with a higher disability risk.