Frailty syndrome among elderly and associated factors: comparison of two cities.
Rosalina Aparecida Partezani Rodrigues, Jack Roberto Silva Fhon, Maria de Lourdes de Farias Pontes and 3 others
PMID 30517585WHAT IT FOUND
Among 480 older adults, frailty was higher in Ribeirão Preto than João Pessoa and linked to older age, less schooling, more diseases, cognitive deficit, poorer daily function and more depressive symptoms.
These are associations, not proof of cause.
Key findings
01Among 480 older adults, frailty scores were higher in Ribeirão Preto than in João Pessoa.
02In the final model, frailty was significantly associated with living in Ribeirão Preto, age, schooling, number of diseases, cognitive deficit, instrumental activities of daily living score and depressive symptoms.
03The frailty score correlated with number of diseases in both cities and both sexes, with reported correlations of 0.488, 0.500, 0.445 and 0.608 (all p<0.001).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that any factor caused frailty. The authors say there is no standardisation of instruments used to evaluate frailty across studies, so comparisons with other work may be difficult. People with neurological diseases were excluded, and only urban residents who could respond to the instruments were included, so the findings may not apply to those groups. Some marital status and family arrangement information was lost, so those comparisons are incomplete. The study did not test any therapy, so it cannot show that changing these factors reduces frailty.
Declared interests
Funded by CAPES (Finance Code 001) and CNPq (grant #311030/2011-4). The supplied text does not report author conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that treating these factors will reduce frailty. This was a cross-sectional association study, not a trial of any intervention.