Assessment of Frailty by the French Version of the Vulnerable Elders Survey-13 on Digital Tablet: Validation Study.

BACKGROUND: Frailty assessment is a major issue in geriatric medicine. The Vulnerable Elders Survey-13 (VES-13) is a simple and practical tool that identifies frailty through a 13-item questionnaire completed by older adults or their family caregivers by self-administration (pencil and paper) or by telephone interview. The VES-13 provides a 10-point score that is also a recognized mortality predictor. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to design an electronic version of the Echelle de Vulnérabilité des Ainés-13, the French version of the VES-13 (eEVA-13) for use on a digital tablet and validate it. METHODS: The scale was implemented as a web App in 3 different screens and used on an Android tablet (14.0× 25.6 cm). Participants were patients attending the outpatient clinic of a French geriatric hospital or hospitalized in a rehabilitation ward and family caregivers of geriatric patients. They completed the scale twice, once by a reference method (self-administered questionnaire or telephone interview) and once by eEVA-13 using the digital tablet. Agreement for diagnosis of frailty was assessed with the κ coefficient, and scores were compared by Bland and Altman plots and interclass correlation coefficients. User experience was assessed by a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: In total, 86 participants, including 40 patients and 46 family caregivers, participated in the study. All family caregivers had previously used digital devices, while 13 (32.5%) and 10 (25%) patients had no or infrequent use of them previously. We observed no failure to complete the eEVA-13, and 70% of patients (28/40) and no family caregivers needed support to complete the eEVA-13. The agreement between the eEVA-13 and the reference method for the diagnosis of frailty was excellent (κ=0.92) with agreement in 83 cases and disagreement in 3 cases. The mean difference between the scores provided by the 2 scales was 0.081 (95% CI-1.263 to 1.426). Bland and Altman plots showed a high level of agreement between the eEVA-13 and the reference methods and interclass correlation coefficient value was 0.997 (95% CI 0.994-0.998) for the paper and tablet group and 0.977 (95% CI 0.957-0.988) for the phone and tablet groups. The tablet assessment was found to be easy to use by 77.5% (31/40) of patients and by 96% (44/46) of caregivers. Finally, 85% (39/46) of family caregivers and 50% (20/40) of patients preferred the eEVA-13 to the original version. CONCLUSIONS: The eEVA-13 is an appropriate digital tool for diagnosing frailty and can be used by older adults and their family caregivers. The scores obtained with eEVA-13 are highly correlated with those obtained with the original version. The use of health questionnaires on digital tablets is feasible in frail and very old patients, although some patients may need help to use them.

Cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine are associated with a reduced mortality in nursing home residents with dementia: a longitudinal observational study.

BACKGROUND: A large proportion of nursing home (NH) residents suffer from dementia and effects of conventional anti-dementia drugs on their health is poorly known. We aimed to investigate the associations between exposure to anti-dementia drugs and mortality among NH residents. METHODS: This retrospective longitudinal observational study involved 329 French NH and the residents admitted in these facilities since 2014 and having major neurocognitive disorder. From their electronic health records, we obtained their age, sex, level of dependency, Charlson comorbidity index, and Mini mental examination score at admission. Exposure to anti-dementia drugs was determined using their prescription into 4 categories: none, exposure to acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI) alone, exposure to memantine alone, exposure to AChEI and memantine. Survival until the end of 2019 was studied in the entire cohort by Cox proportional hazards. To alleviate bias related to prescription of anti-dementia drugs, we formed propensity-score matched cohorts for each type of anti-dementia drug exposure, and studied survival by the same method. RESULTS: We studied 25,358 NH residents with major neurocognitive disorder. Their age at admission was 87.1 + 7.1 years and 69.8% of them were women. Exposure to anti-dementia drugs occurred in 2,550 (10.1%) for AChEI alone, in 2,055 (8.1%) for memantine alone, in 460 (0.2%) for AChEI plus memantine, whereas 20,293 (80.0%) had no exposure to anti-dementia drugs. Adjusted hazard ratios for mortality were significantly reduced for these three groups exposed to anti-dementia drugs, as compared to reference group: HR: 0.826, 95%CI 0.769 to 0.888 for AChEI; 0.857, 95%CI 0.795 to 0.923 for memantine; 0.742, 95%CI 0.640 to 0.861 for AChEI plus memantine. Results were consistent in propensity-score matched cohorts. CONCLUSION: The use of conventional anti-dementia drugs is associated with a lower mortality in nursing home residents with dementia and should be widely used in this population.