Abstract

LLUIS RAMOS, Guido Emilio. Frailty and risk associations in older adults from an urban community. Rev Cub Med Mil [online]. 2013, vol.42, n.3, pp. 368-376. ISSN 0138-6557.

Introduction: frailty in older adults is a syndrome characterized by a reduction in resistance and physiological reserves. Objective: describe the prevalence of frailty in terms of biopsychosocial and functional variables. Methods: descriptive analytical cross-sectional door-to-door case-control prevalence study. 315 elderly persons were selected from the municipality of La Lisa. Frailty was diagnosed on the basis of expert criteria. With the purpose of finding risk factors, a univariate analysis was conducted between each of the explanatory covariables and the response variable, using the chi-square test. Poisson regression was performed for the univariate analysis, estimating the prevalence ratio. Results: the prevalence of frailty was 42.9 %. A higher prevalence was found among women (59.5 %) and among subjects with comorbidity (61.9 %), polypharmacy (63.8 %), poor mobility (61.3 %), low weight (51.9 %), severe depression (100.0 %), cognitive impairment (100.0 %), disability (84.0 %), poor self-perception of health (75.0 %) and family support limited to critical events (71.4 %). Comorbidity, altered mobility and flexibility test results, nutritional status, low weight, cognitive impairment, disability, falls and poor self-perception of health were the factors associated with the emergence of the syndrome in the population. Conclusions: prevalence of the frailty syndrome was found to be high in the community studied, and was associated to biomedical, psychological and functional health risk factors.

Keywords : frailty; older adults; comorbidity; disability; cognitive impairment; self-perception of health.

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