RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To determine which of 8 commonly employed frailty assessment tools demonstrate the most appropriate characteristics to be employed in different clinical and social settings. DESIGN: Cross-sectional multicenter European-based study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 1440 patients aged ≥75 years evaluated in geriatric inpatient wards, geriatric outpatient clinics, primary care clinics, and nursing homes. METHODS: The frailty instruments used were Frailty Phenotype, SHARE-FI, 3-item Frailty Trait Scale (FTS-3), 5-item Frailty Trait Scale (FTS-5), FRAIL, 35-item Frailty Index (FI-35), Gérontopôle Frailty Screening Tool (GFST), and Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS). The settings were geriatrics wards, outpatient clinics, primary care, and nursing homes. Suitability was evaluated by considering the feasibility (patients with the test fully completed), administration time (time spent for administering the test), and interscale agreement (Cohen kappa index among instruments to detect frailty). RESULTS: The prevalence of frailty varied across settings and adopted tests. The scales with the mean highest feasibility were the FRAIL scale (99.4%), SHARE-FI (98.3%), and GFST (95.0%). The mean shortest administration times were obtained with CFS (24 seconds), GFST (72 seconds), and FRAIL scale (90 seconds). The interscale agreement between most of the tests was fair. CFS followed by FTS-5 agreed at least moderately with a greater number of scales overall and in almost all settings. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Based on feasibility, time to undertake the tool, and agreement with other scales, different scales would be recommended according to the setting considered. Our findings suggest that most of the tools evaluated are actually assessing different frailty constructs.
Asunto(s)
Fragilidad , Anciano , Estudios Transversales , Anciano Frágil , Fragilidad/diagnóstico , Evaluación Geriátrica , Humanos , Apoyo SocialRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The accumulation of chronic conditions in a same patient is increasingly more frequent for which is becoming a problem of public health. The objectives of this study are to describe the prevalence of comorbidity in the population, its epidemiological characteristics and its influence in the utilization of health services from the Regional Health Survey of Madrid (ERSM2007) and to compare two indicators of comorbidity. METHODS: Cross-sectional study. The ERSM2007 was analyzed (n=12.190 over 15 years old). Two indicators were developed: the presence of 2 or more chronic conditions (PC) and the existence of 2 or more affected clinical categories according to a definition of comorbidited patient (PP). Other variables analyzed were: sex, age, social class, education, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol and tobacco consumption, and the utilization of health services. A descriptive analysis was carried out, bivariate and multivariate by means of logistic regression with odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals of 95%. OUTCOMES: The prevalence of comorbidity measured with PC was 23.7% in men and 37.3% in women and with PP was 5.4% and 8.2% respectively. Comorbidity increased with age, with low educational level (OR=2.0; 1.4-2.8, in women without or with primary studies regarding university degree), with obesity (OR=2.6; 1.9-3.3, in obese women with regard to normal weighted women), and with the previous alcohol and tobacco consumption. The highest association was observed between PP and hospitalization (OR=4.1; 3.0-5.5 in men and OR=3.3; 2.6-4.3 in women). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of comorbidity was higher in women, in older people, with smaller level of studies or in more disadvantaged social classes. Comorbidity was associated with the obesity and with consumption of tobacco or alcohol. The utilization of the healthcare services enlarged with the comorbidity. These indicators can be complementary, because of their differential association with each healthcare level.
