Changes in frailty conditions and phenotype components in elderly after hospitalization.
Gianna Fiori Marchiori, Darlene Mara Dos Santos Tavares
PMID 28699992WHAT IT FOUND
One year after discharge, the most common change was non-frail to pre-frail (56.7%), and deaths occurred among frail and pre-frail adults.
Depression, medicines, illnesses and daily-living scores did not predict overall frailty change.
Key findings
01One year after discharge, the most common change was worsening from non-frail to pre-frail (56.7%), and no non-frail older adults became frail (0%).
02Death was reported at higher percentages among frail (28.6%) and pre-frail (10.4%) older adults.
03Overall frailty condition change was not predicted by depression, medicines, illnesses or daily-living scores, while an increase in illnesses made worsening exhaustion or fatigue 1.26 times more likely.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 129 of the 265 older adults interviewed at admission completed follow-up; 87 were not in the urban area, 20 died, and others were excluded, so the results may not apply to people lost to follow-up. Participants had to be able to walk and had no cognitive decline, and severe stroke or unstable Parkinson disease was excluded, so it says little about more impaired or cognitively impaired older adults. Morbidities were self-reported and could be forgotten or misremembered. This was a single-centre observational study with no intervention, so it describes patterns after discharge but cannot show that any factor causes frailty change.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not report a conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that depression, medicines, illnesses or daily-living scores predict overall frailty change after discharge. Those variables were not predictive in the final model, and the study was an observational follow-up, not a treatment trial.