Abstract

The study examined how multiple dimensions of food access relate to frailty among community-dwelling older adults. A mail-based questionnaire was sent in August 2020 to 5000 residents aged 65 years or older in City N, Prefecture H, yielding 2151 valid responses. Food access was evaluated using time to the nearest grocery store, frequency of grocery shopping, and perceived shopping convenience, while frailty was assessed with the five-item Frailty Screening Index. Overall, 15.9% of respondents were classified as frail. Travel time to the nearest store showed no significant association with frailty. In contrast, shopping fewer than three times per week was independently associated with higher odds of frailty, although the magnitude of this association was smaller than that observed for perceived shopping difficulty. Perceived shopping difficulty demonstrated the strongest association with frailty, with participants reporting shopping difficulty having markedly higher odds of frailty after adjustment for potential confounders. These findings suggest that subjective shopping convenience may be a useful indicator associated with frailty, potentially reflecting the physical and psychological burden of grocery shopping in addition to food access.

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