[Frailty as a predictor of mortality in a cohort of people aged 75 years and older]

[Medicine consumption as a factor associated with the state of fragility of the elderly patient in Spain]

INTRODUCTION

Frailty in the elderly is a concept in constant evolution, with a significant impact on the morbidity and mortality of patients. We assessed the associative strength of the Timed Up and Go test (TUG) and medication consumption in frailty and associated risk using various methods.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Observational, cross-sectional, multicenter study carried out in 128 Primary Care Centers distributed throughout Spain, has a total sample of 2422 patients over 65 years of age, estimating the prevalence of frailty with the TUG test. Descriptive analysis of the categorical variables and associative strength of TUG for frailty and medication consumption was performed with distribution of absolute and relative frequencies and multinomial logistic regression. SPSS 22.0 was used, considering statistical significance p=0.05.

RESULTS

The prevalence of frailty in the sample was 13.7%, accepting as frailty those subjects who obtained a score >20s in performing the TUG test. A third of these subjects classified as frail took more than 30s to complete the test and 32.5% of those studied would be classified as "pre-frail". We found a slight difference in the prevalence of frailty if we analyze the data according to sex, being 10.8% in men compared to 15.8% in women. Regarding pharmacological consumption, 72.8% of the subjects consume 5 or more drugs daily with similar proportions by sex, and with an average consumption of 6.57 drugs. The drugs with the greatest association with the degree of frailty were drugs used for dementia (40% of individuals who consumed them were considered frail), antiparkinsonian drugs (38%), antipsychotics (34%), antianemics (26.2%), anticoagulants (22.2%) and antiepileptics (21.1%).

CONCLUSIONS

The incidence of frailty in elderly patients in Spain is initially notable, being present in 13.7% through the application of the TUG test. The age variable is the one that is most significantly associated with the frailty of the elderly patient. An association was demonstrated between the degree of frailty and total medication consumption. The prevalence of frailty was 4.7% in the non-polypharmacy group compared to 15.4% in the polypharmacy group and reaching 23.4% in the extreme polypharmacy group. The drugs with a greater association with the patient's degree of frailty were those used in the neurological/psychiatric sphere (antidementia, antiparkinsonian, antipsychotic or antiepileptic drugs).

Mortality, Falls, and Fracture Risk Are Positively Associated With Frailty: A SIDIAP Cohort Study of 890 000 Patients

BACKGROUND

Frail subjects are at increased risk of adverse outcomes. We aimed to assess their risk of falls, all-cause mortality, and fractures.

METHOD

We used a retrospective cohort study using the Sistema d'Informació per al Desenvolupament de l'Investigació en Atenció Primària database (>6 million residents). Subjects aged 75 years and older with ≥1 year of valid data (2007-2015) were included. Follow-up was carried out from (the latest of) the date of cohort entry up to migration, end of the study period or outcome (whichever came first). The eFRAGICAP classified subjects as fit, mild, moderate, or severely frail. Outcomes (10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases) were incident falls, fractures (overall/hip/vertebral), and all-cause mortality during the study period. Statistics: hazard ratios (HRs), 95% CI adjusted (per age, sex, and socioeconomic status), and unadjusted cause-specific Cox models, accounting for competing risk of death (fit group as the reference).

RESULTS

A total of 893 211 subjects were analyzed; 54.4% were classified as fit, 34.0% as mild, 9.9% as moderate, and 1.6% as severely frail. Compared with the fit, frail had an increased risk of falls (adjusted HR [95% CI] of 1.55 [1.52-1.58], 2.74 [2.66-2.84], and 5.94 [5.52-6.40]), all-cause mortality (adjusted HR [95% CI] of 1.36 [1.35-1.37], 2.19 [2.16-2.23], and 4.29 [4.13-4.45]), and fractures (adjusted HR [95% CI] of 1.21 [1.20-1.23], 1.51 [1.47-1.55], and 2.36 [2.20-2.53]) for mild, moderate, and severe frailty, respectively. Severely frail had a high risk of vertebral (HR of 2.49 [1.99-3.11]) and hip fracture (HR [95% CI] of 1.85 [1.50-2.28]). Accounting for competing risk of death did not change results.

CONCLUSION

Frail subjects are at increased risk of death, fractures, and falls. The eFRAGICAP tool can easily assess frailty in electronic primary care databases in Spain.

[Prevalence and associated factors of frailty in adults over 70 years in the community]

Objetivo

Estimar la prevalencia y analizar los factores asociados al síndrome de fragilidad en adultos ≥ 70 años, pertenecientes a un centro de salud de Asturias.

Diseño

Estudio observacional transversal.

Emplazamiento

Centro de Salud El Llano, Asturias.

Participantes

Adultos ≥ 70 años.

Mediciones principales

La fragilidad se definió por la presencia de ≥ 3 criterios del fenotipo de fragilidad de Fried. Variables secundarias: características sociodemográficas, estado de salud, estado funcional, estado cognitivo-afectivo y riesgo social. Se realizó un análisis bivariante y regresión logística.

Resultados

Se incluyeron 408 participantes con una edad media de 79,8 (DE 6,6) años, el 59,1% eran mujeres. La prevalencia de fragilidad fue del 27,7% y del 44,9% para la prefragilidad. El perfil sociodemográfico es de una mujer (77%), de elevada edad (> 84 años) (50,4%), sin estudios (65,5%), viuda (48,7%), con bajo nivel económico (47,8%) y en riesgo social (OR: 3,3; IC 95%: 2,5-4). Los factores que se asociaron estadísticamente con el síndrome de fragilidad fueron: comorbilidad alta (OR: 2,7; IC 95%: 1,5-5), polimedicación (OR: 1,9; IC 95%: 1,3-3), percepción de la calidad de vida con la salud (OR: 0,95; IC 95%: 0,93-0,97); deambulación alterada (OR: 17,9; IC 95%: 7,1-45,3), apoyo para la marcha (OR: 10,5; IC 95%: 4,7-23,4), alto riesgo de caídas (OR: 6,4; IC 95%: 3,8-10,8), dependencia para las ABVD (OR: 4; IC 95%: 2,4-6,6), AIVD (OR: 9,7; IC 95%: 4,7-20), discapacidad (OR: 37,7; IC 95%: 52,2-274,5), deterioro cognitivo (OR: 4,1; IC 95%: 1,8-9,3) y depresión (OR: 4,8; IC 95%: 2,7-8,7).

Conclusiones

La fragilidad es un síndrome multifactorial de elevada prevalencia en los mayores de 70 años, en el que además de los criterios de fragilidad de Fried deben de ser analizados aspectos del estado de salud, funcionales, cognitivos-afectivos y sociales.

Frailty, Disability, and Mortality in a Rural Community-Dwelling Elderly Cohort from Northern India

INTRODUCTION

With increasing proportion of the elderly in the world, detecting and preventing frailty assumes importance to improve the quality of life and health. The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of frailty, disability and its determinants and their relation with mortality among community dwelling elderly cohort.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was conducted in a cohort in rural Haryana, India, and was followed till October 2018. Frailty was assessed using the Edmonton Frailty Scale and disability was assessed using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) scale by trained physicians.

RESULTS

The prevalence of frailty was found to be 47.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 44.0-50.8). The median WHODAS-2 score was found to be 10.4 (2.1-29.2). Those who were older (odds ratio [OR] - 2.5; 95% CI: 1.8-3.4), women (OR - 3.3; 95% CI: 2.2-4.9) and those with chronic disease (OR 2.3; 95% CI: 1.7-3.1) had higher rates of frailty. The adjusted hazard ratio of death among frail people was 4.7 (2.3-9.7).

CONCLUSION

In this study we found the frailty is associated with the mortality among community dwelling elderly. Thus early identification of the frailty and its determinants may help us to reduce the mortality related to this.

Frailty, transition in frailty status and all-cause mortality in older adults of a Taichung community-based population

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have reported the associations of frailty phenotype or its components with mortality. However, studies that explored the effects of transition in frailty status on mortality were far less in Asian or Chinese. The aim of this study was to evaluate baseline frailty status and one-year change of frailty status in relation to all-cause mortality in Taiwanese community-dwelling older adults who participated in the Taichung Community Health Study for Elders.

METHODS

We conducted a community-based prospective cohort study. A total of 921 community-dwelling elderly men and women aged 65-99 years in Taichung City were enrolled in 2009-2010 and were followed up through 2016. We adopted the definition of frailty proposed by Fried et al., including five components: shrinking, weakness, poor endurance and energy, slowness, and low physical activity. Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of mortality with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for frailty at baseline and one-year change in frailty status.

RESULTS

There were 160 deaths during the follow-up period. The mortality rates in groups of robust and frail were 20.26 and 84.66 per 1000 person-years respectively. After multivariate adjustment, the HR (CIs) for baseline frailty was 2.67 (1.73-4.12). Poor endurance and energy [1.88 (1.03-3.42)], slowness [2.60 (1.76-3.83)] and weakness [1.65 (1.16-2.33)] were found to be predictors of mortality. Increased risks in mortality for subgroups of robust-to-frail [2.76 (1.22-6.27)], frail-to-robust [3.87 (1.63, 9.19)], and frail-to-frail [4.08 (1.92-8.66)] over one-year period were observed compared with those remaining robust.

CONCLUSION

Baseline frailty status and one-year change in frailty status are associated with 6-year all-cause mortality among Taiwanese elderly adults. Frailty may be useful for identifying older adults at high risks for mortality prevention.

[Effectiveness of physical exercise on fitness in frail older adults: A systematic review of randomised trials]

Performing exercise to maintain a good physical condition is crucial to improve and prevent frailty in older adults. The aim of this review was to assess the beneficial effects of physical exercise on fitness in frail older adults. A thorough literature search of randomised clinical trials (RCT) in the last 15 years was performed on different electronic databases. The methodological assessment of studies was obtained using the PEDro scale. Ten RCT were included, providing a final sample of 1,130 individuals. Scores on the PEDro scale ranged from 5 to 8/10. Multicomponent training programs seem to be the best strategy to improve fitness outcomes. Further studies should be performed in order to optimise the design of supervised exercise programs, and further research is needed in hospital and institutionalised settings.