Evaluation of Frailty in Community Dwelling Older Adults of India

BACKGROUND: Frailty is a major syndrome associated with ageing. It results from cumulative decline across multiple physiological systems which is different from that occurs in normal ageing. Frail older adults are vulnerable to adverse health outcomes including falls, incident disability, hospitalization, and mortality following any minor stressors e.g. infection. Identification of such older adults is important for prevention and treatment of poor health consequences of frailty.

There are only few studies that have assessed frailty among older adults in India, thus present paper aims at providing community based prevalence and socio demographic and health related factors associated with frailty.

METHODOLOGY: Two hundred sixteen community dwelling older adults of age more than 60 years were selected using convenience sampling. Subjects having neurological disorder, and communication impairments were excluded. The assessment for frailty was done with Edmonton Frail scale (EFS).

RESULTS: Out of two hundred sixteen older adults, the percentage of subjects with a robust or non frail score (0–4) on the EFS was 28.2% and 40% had an apparently vulnerable score (5–6), and 31.8% had a frail score (7–17). Age, gender and number of comorbidities was significantly associated with Frailty (p<0.05). However, no significant associations were observed according to education level.

CONCLUSION: There are high percentage of frail older adults. Screening for frailty shall be incorporated in Geriatric evaluation as it carries risk of poor health consequences.