Correlation of Frailty Status to Health Related Quality of Life in the elderly: a cross-sectional study on community-dwelling older adults referred to an outpatient geriatric service in Egypt
Correlation of Frailty Status to Health Related Quality of Life in the elderly: a cross-sectional study on community-dwelling older adults referred to an outpatient geriatric service in Egypt
Motassem S. Amer, Rania M. El Akkad, Heba S. Hassan
ABSTRACT
Frailty is a common, heterogeneous, geriatric syndrome associated with adverse health events. There is a lack of knowledge concerning the relationship between two multidimensional variables: frailty and quality of life (QOL).
Aim
was to investigate the relationship between frailty and health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) among community dwelling non demented elderly.
Method
115 non demented elderly, 60 years and older recruited from outpatient geriatric clinic at Al Mansoura General Hospital, Dakahlia, Egypt. Each participant underwent Comprehensive geriatric assessment, assessing the health related Quality of life (HR-QOL) by the RAND-36 health survey and assessing frailty by Edmonton frail scale (EFS).
Results
Frailty significantly correlates with all the 8 dimensions of the HR-QOL even after controlling for covariates. Also frailty status significantly correlates with age, education, Body Mass Index (BMI), function, depression and cognition. By linear Correlation coefficient a significant correlation between frailty and HR-QOL, age, function, cognition and depression was found.
Conclusion
Dimensions of HR-QOL were negatively affected by frailty and that possible correlates of frailty status were age, low socioeconomic status, low body mass index, functional dependence, depression and cognitive impairment. Effort to improve quality of life for frail elders in this population is important.
Key words
Community dwelling elderly, Frailty, Quality of life.