Correlation between Frailty Syndrome and Hospitalization in the Last 12 Months in Community-Dwelling Elderly Dayane Barboza de Lira, Izabela Silva Santos Ferreira, Maíra Benício Pouza, Sheila de Melo Borges

Abstract

This study aimed to verify any correlation between the Frailty Syndrome and any hospitalization occurred among elderly living in the community, in the last twelve months. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 298 seniors attending a Primary Health Unit in the city of Santos/SP. Data was brought from a socio-demographic questionnaire as well as a health condition questionnaire. Also, it was questioned about any hospitalization within the last twelve months. For the detection of frailty in the elderly, the Edmonton Frailty Scale (EFS) was used. This study has shown that most of the elderly did not present frailty (n = 161; 54%), followed by vulnerable elderly (n = 78; 26.2%) and frail elderly (n = 59; 19.8%), with a mean of 4.57 (SD = 2.492) points of the EFS. Regarding the hospitalization, it was noticeable that 10.4% (n = 31) of the elderly needed it in the last twelve months. Spearman’s correlation showed a positive and weak correlation of hospitalization whether from the total score (r = 0.187, p = 0.001) or the score (r = 0.151, p = 0.009) of the EFS. Thus, its conclusion is that the existence of frailty in the elderly is related to the occurrence of hospitalization in the last twelve months, speaking of the studied population.