What is the relationship between validated frailty scores and mortality for adults with COVID-19 in acute hospital care? A systematic review.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The aim of this systematic review was to quantify the association between frailty and COVID-19 in relation to mortality in hospitalised patients. METHODS: Medline, Embase, Web of Science and the grey literature were searched for papers from inception to 10 September 2020; the search was re-run in Medline up until the 9 December 2020. Screening, data extraction and quality grading were undertaken by two reviewers. Results were summarised using descriptive statistics, including a meta-analysis of overall mortality; the relationships between frailty and COVID-19 mortality were summarised narratively. RESULTS: A total of 2,286 papers were screened resulting in 26 being included in the review. Most studies were from Europe, half from the UK, and one from Brazil; the median sample size was 242.5, median age 73.1 and 43.5% were female. In total, 22/26 used the Clinical Frailty Scale; reported mortality ranged from 14 to 65%. Most, but not all studies showed an association between increasing frailty and a greater risk of dying. Two studies indicated a sub-additive relationship between frailty, COVID-19 and death, and two studies showed no association. CONCLUSIONS: Whilst the majority of studies have shown a positive association between COVID-19-related death and increasing frailty, some studies suggested a more nuanced understanding of frailty and outcomes in COVID-19 is needed. Clinicians should exert caution in placing too much emphasis on the influence of frailty alone when discussing likely prognosis in older people with COVID-19 illness.

The association between frailty risk and COVID-19-associated all-mortality in hospitalised older people: a national cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: Frailty has emerged as an important construct to support clinical decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, doubts remain related to methodological limitations of published studies. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of all people aged 75 + admitted to hospital in England between 1 March 2020 and 31 July 2021. COVID-19 and frailty risk were captured using International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) diagnostic codes. We used the generalised gamma model to estimate accelerated failure time, reporting unadjusted and adjusted results. RESULTS: The cohort comprised 103,561 individuals, mean age 84.1, around half female, 82% were White British with a median of two comorbidities. Frailty risk was distributed approximately 20% low risk and 40% each at intermediate or high risk. In the unadjusted survival plots, 28-day mortality was almost 50% for those with an ICD-10 code of U071 (COVID-19 virus identified), and 25-35% for those with U072 (COVID-19 virus not identified). In the adjusted analysis, the accelerated failure time estimates for those with intermediate and high frailty risk were 0.63 (95% CI 0.58-0.68) and 0.67 (95% CI 0.62-0.72) fewer days alive respectively compared to those with low frailty risk with an ICD-10 diagnosis of U072 (reference category). CONCLUSION: In older people with confirmed COVID-19, both intermediate and high frailty risk were associated with reduced survival compared to those with low frailty risk.