Frailty syndrome and end-stage kidney disease outcomes at a Latin American dialysis center.

Abstract

Introduction: Frailty syndrome generates a high risk of adverse outcomes and mortality, and its prevalence is elevated in patients with end-stage kidney disease. Few studies have reported the prevalence and outcomes of frailty in populations from less developed countries.

Objective: To identify the clinical outcomes and factors associated with the frailty syndrome in patients with stage five chronic kidney disease who started renal replacement therapy - both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis- in a dialysis center in Bucaramanga, Colombia.

Materials and methods: This was a prospective study of patients with end-stage kidney disease who initiated dialysis at a center in Colombia and had a twelve-month follow-up.

Results: The overall frailty prevalence was 50.47% and two out of three patients older than 65 years had the syndrome. We found significantly higher followup mortality among patients with frailty: odds ratio of 2.95 (CI: 1.07- 8.13; p=0.036) in unadjusted analysis.

Conclusions: Literature shows that compared to developed nations, Latin American adults are facing a higher prevalence of chronic diseases, and frailty syndrome is raising. In this study, according to the FRAIL scale, having a frailty syndrome predicts a higher mortality; hypoalbuminemia and low creatinine levels at the beginning of dialysis could act as predictors of its diagnosis.