Explaining the impact of poverty on old-age frailty in Europe: material, psychosocial and behavioural factors.

Background: Previous research found poverty to be associated with adverse health outcomes among older adults but the factors that translate low economic resources into poor physical health are not well understood. The goal of this analysis was to assess the impact of material, psychosocial, and behavioural factors as well as education in explaining the poverty-health link.

Methods: In total, 28 360 observations from 11 390 community-dwelling respondents (65+) in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004-13, 10 countries) were analysed. Multilevel growth curve models were used to assess the impact of combined income and asset poverty risk on old-age frailty (frailty index) and associated pathway variables.

Results: In total, 61.8% of the variation of poverty risk on frailty level was explained by direct and indirect effects. Results stress the role of material and particularly psychosocial factors such as perceived control and social isolation, whereas the role of health behaviour was negligible.

Conclusion: We suggest to strengthen social policy and public health efforts in order to fight poverty and its deleterious health effects from early age on as well as to broaden the scope of interventions with regard to psychosocial factors.