Journal of Frailty & Aging最新文献

Background: Hip fractures generate high biomedical, social, functional, organisational, and economic costs. There are various quality indicators to guide its management. One of them is surgery within 48-72 h. In Chilean public health system, this indicator has out-of-standard results. This situation could have organizational causes: after hip fracture diagnosis, many older patients are first referred to general hospitals, whilst waiting an orthopedic surgical bed.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of a protocol of immediate-admission to the surgery hospital on organisational and economic indicators of hip-fractured older patients.

Design: Before-and-after study, between 01/01/2017-09/30/2019; 12 months before and 21 months after implementation.

Setting: Regional surgical hospital responsible for 87 % of the older population in its assigned territory, in the more aged region of Chile.

Participants: Anonymised data of 902 hip-fractured older adults (≥ 60 years).

Intervention: Implementation of a protocol that requires immediate admission to the surgical hospital of all older hip-fractured patients at the time of diagnosis.

Measurements: Number of hip-fractured patients with no immediate admission, time to surgery, total in-hospital time, and economic costs. Normality tests (Kolmogorov-Smirnov), non-parametric tests (Chi-squared), Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed. Measures of central tendency (medians and percentiles) were used.

Results: After protocol there was a significant reduction in the proportion of patients referred to general hospitals in both, first and second year (pre=37,8 %; post 1 = 27,3 %; post 2 = 23,3 %, p = 0,000). Time to surgery was also significantly reduced (medians bed days pre=15, post 1 = 11, post 2 = 10, p = 0,000). Total in-hospital time decreased 21 % (3395 bed days), and there was also a significant decrease in costs from USD130,000 to USD35,000 (p = 0,000).

Conclusion: Immediate admission to orthopedic surgical hospital of older adults with hip fractures significantly decreases inter-hospital transfers, time to surgery, total in-hospital time, and direct hospital costs.

Objectives: Examine the effect of frailty on physical function recovery in people admitted to hospital who received a physiotherapy Early Rehabilitation program.

Methods: Observational cohort (1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021). Patients admitted to the acute site at Austin Health, Australia who received an Early Rehabilitation program (targeted physical rehabilitation to address goals aligned to physiotherapy intervention in parallel with acute medical treatment) were eligible. Frailty was measured with the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS). The primary outcome was, across the CFS, magnitude of change from admission to discharge in physical function assessed with the modified Iowa Level of Assistance Scale (mILOA). Secondary outcomes were length of stay and discharge destination. Generalised additive models were used.

Results: There were 674 patients included in the study. Irrespective of frailty status, mean improvement in physical function from admission to discharge exceeded the minimal datable change of 5.8 points for the mILOA. Larger average improvements in mILOA were observed in patients with lower degrees of frailty (p < 0.001 overall effect), where a portion of patients with severe frailty did not make clinically meaningful gains in physical function following Early Rehabilitation. Mean improvement in physical function and predicted probabilities for discharge home were similar; where greater frailty severity was associated with a lesser chance of going home at acute hospital discharge (p = 0.002 overall effect).

Conclusions: Validating the link between predictions for change in physical function and discharge home in people receiving early rehabilitation during acute hospitalisation would be of great clinical utility.

Background: Intrinsic capacity (IC), representing an individual's full range of physical and mental abilities, is influenced by objective socioeconomic status (SES); however, the impact of subjective SES remains unclear.

Objectives: This study aims to assess IC and investigate the relationship between SES and IC deficits, with a particular focus on the role of subjective SES.

Design: Cross-sectional study SETTING: 45 communities in two provinces in China PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults aged 50 and above MEASUREMENTS: IC was assessed following the Integrated Care for Older People guideline. SES was measured through objective SES (education and occupation) and subjective SES (measured by MacArthur Scale). Ordinal logistic regression models were performed to estimate the association between SES and IC.

Results: Among 3,058 participants (61.3 ± 8.05 years, 54.8 % women), 2,333 (76.3 %) showed deficits in at least one IC subdomain, particularly sensory (63.5 %), vitality (25.8 %) and cognition (18.4 %). A dose-response association was observed between SES and IC deficits. Individuals with high subjective SES (OR: 0.72, 0.60-0.87), high education (OR: 0.54, 0.38-0.75), and high occupation (OR: 0.64 0.50-0.81) exhibited lower IC deficits risk compared with counterparts. Individuals with high education and middle subjective SES or high occupation and middle subjective SES had 67 % (OR: 0.33, 0.18-0.60) and 49 % (OR: 0.51, 0.35-0.74) lower risk than those with low SES.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that individuals with low SES may be more vulnerable to IC deficits. Addressing social inequalities in the early assessment of IC is crucial for reducing health disparities and promoting healthy ageing.

Background: As the World Trade Center (WTC) General Responder Cohort ages, it is imperative to study their aging process and identify factors that can be targeted for interventions.

Objectives: Our goal was to utilize a previously developed WTC Clinical Frailty Index (CFI) to identify distinct frailty trajectories and associated factors in this cohort.

Design: A latent class mixed model evaluated frailty trajectories using WTC CFIs. Multinomial regression models were used to assess associations between frailty trajectory and sociodemographic and WTC characteristics.

Setting: We utilized data collected during routine WTC monitoring visits from 2004 until 2021.

Participants: The participants were WTC general responders.

Measurements: Relative risk ratios (RRR) assessed associations with a 95 % confidence interval (CI).

Results: Three distinct linear frailty trajectories were identified: high CFI (indicating higher frailty), low CFI, and progressively increasing CFI. Compared with the low CFI group, females were more likely to be in the high CFI and progressively increasing CFI groups (RRR 1.66, 95 %CI 1.46, 1.90; RRR 1.32, 95 %CI 1.15, 1.53, respectively). Education beyond high school and elevated income were protective against high CFI and progressively increasing CFI groups. Individuals that self-identified as Hispanic had an elevated RRR for the high CFI group (RRR 1.17, 95 %CI 1.04, 1.31). Occupation on 9/11, such as construction and maintenance and repair, as well as high/very high WTC exposure were significantly associated with both the high CFI and progressively increasing CFI groups.

Conclusions: Several sociodemographic and WTC variables were associated with more hazardous frailty trajectories in WTC general responders. This work is beneficial to informing and directing future interventions for those at higher-risk for more hazardous frailty progression.

The objective of this review was to identify evidence-based, community-based physical activity (PA) and nutrition-based programs aimed at facilitating health behaviour change among low-income older adults and/or those living in rural/remote areas. This review followed the scoping review methodology proposed by Arksey & O'Malley. The Michie behaviour change wheel was used to categorize intervention types. Of the 2954 retrieved citations, 25 articles met the inclusion criteria. All study interventions demonstrated positive outcomes, including improvements in fruit and vegetable consumption, PA levels, physical function and nutrition knowledge. Study findings highlight that PA and nutrition-based interventions can be effective to facilitate behavior change in low-income and/or rural older adults. Limited research exists looking specifically at older adults living in rural communities, with only two of the 25 included articles including rural study populations.

Background: Major joint surgery is one of the largest components of Medicare spending in the US and the most frequent major procedure performed in older adults. Increasing age is associated with increasing prevalence of frailty, but the influence of frailty on healthcare expenditures following arthroplasty has yet to be adequately explored.

Objective: To explore the association between frailty and healthcare expenditures in the year following total hip and knee arthroplasties.

Design: Retrospective cohort study SETTING: United States population PARTICIPANTS: Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older undergoing total knee or hip arthroplasty (n = 1,152,872) from 2017 through 2018.

Measurements: Claims-based frailty index (exposure), total 1-year Medicare expenditures broken down by category (primary outcome), in-hospital complications, length of stay, discharge destination, readmission and mortality (secondary outcomes).

Results: Among 435,496 patients who underwent hip (37.8 %) and 717,376 patients who underwent knee arthroplasty (62.2 %), the mean age was 73.7 years and 19.2 % were classified as frail. Median total expenditures in US dollars at one year were higher in those with frailty ($247,503; IQR [$169,400-$391,176]) relative to the prefrail ($179,379 [$127,396-$265,039]) and robust ($130,314 [$85,438-$199,605]) groups. Total expenditures included the index surgical admission, rehospitalization, skilled nursing care, and outpatient care, all of which were higher with increasing frailty. However, the surgical procedure accounted for less than a third of the total 1-year healthcare costs and was the category with the lowest degree of variation between patients. Frailty was also associated with longer lengths of stay, higher risks of complications, readmission, and mortality and lower likelihood of being discharged home after the procedure.

Conclusions: Among older adults undergoing total hip and knee arthroplasty, frailty is associated with higher healthcare expenditures, predominantly driven by longitudinal care during the year following the procedure. More research is needed to test interventions to improve outcomes and reduce cost in this high-risk population.

Background: Among community dwelling older adults, social vulnerability increases with age. Advanced age alone does not fully explain how or why older adults become more socially vulnerable; frailty may offer a better explanation.

Objective: We aimed to understand how change in frailty relates to change in social vulnerability over time.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting and participants: We analyzed older adults aged 65 years and older from the province of Nova Scotia who accessed publicly funded home care in 2005 and 2008 followed for up to ten years.

Measurements: We measured social vulnerability and frailty using indices. Controlling for time constant covariates, multi-level growth modelling was used to evaluate whether within-person changes in frailty were associated with within person changes in social vulnerability, after accounting for between-person differences.

Results: There were 2,791 older adults in the 2005 cohort and 2,741 older adults in the 2008 cohort. Mean age, frailty index and social vulnerability index were 80.6 years (SD 7.5), 0.23 (SD 0.10), 0.22 (SD 0.07) and 80.4 (SD 7.6), 0.23 (SD 0.10), and 0.23 (SD 0.07) for each cohort respectively. After accounting for age, sex and baseline frailty, a 0.1 point increase in change of FI from baseline was associated with a 0.017 (CI 0.016 - 0.019, p < 0.001) increase in SVI in the 2005 cohort and a 0.014 (CI 0.013 - 0.016, p < 0.001) increase in SVI in the 2008 cohort.

Conclusions: Although social vulnerability tends to remain constant in the absence of increases in frailty, changes in frailty are closely associated with changes in social vulnerability. Incorporating within-person changes in health into quantitative models of late-life social vulnerability may further improve our understanding of how and why some individuals are able to stay in the community despite their vulnerabilities.

Background: The concept of 'cognitive frailty' (CF) was first developed by an international consensus group in 2013 and defined as evidence of both physical frailty and cognitive impairment without a clinical diagnosis of AD or another dementia. CF has been associated with adverse health outcomes and early identification is vital. Difficulty in the assessment of CF however is the lack of a diagnostic gold standard.

Objectives: This review aimed to identify assessment tools used to diagnose cognitive impairment in the diagnosis of cognitive frailty, their psychometric qualities and clinical utility.

Research design and methods: Six databases were searched between 2013-2024. Studies were eligible if they reported a method of defining cognitive frailty, named the assessment tools, and stated cutoff values used to define cognitive impairment.

Results: In the 116 included studies, large heterogeneity was found in the tools utilised, and cutoff scores applied, to diagnose cognitive impairment in the diagnosis of cognitive frailty. This review has demonstrated that diagnosis of CF relies predominantly on the use of three cognitive assessment tools (Mini Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Clinical Dementia Rating) from a total of 22 different tools identified in the literature. For assessment of physical frailty, 11 different tools were identified, with the Fried Frailty Index and FRAIL Scale predominantly utilised.

Discussion and implications: The variation in the tools used to identify the diagnosis of CF means there is inconsistency in reporting, potentially impacting both the understanding of the prevalence, and the appropriate direction of intervention strategies.