Frailty among Elderly visiting the Outpatient Department of Internal Medicine in a Tertiary Care Centre

Abstract

Introduction: Frailty is a common geriatric condition and is highly widespread among elderly people. There are global challenges to meeting the healthcare needs of the elderly with a rapidly growing elderly population. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of frailty among the elderly visiting the Outpatient Department of Internal Medicine in a tertiary care centre.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was done in the Internal Medicine Outpatient Department in a tertiary care centre from 01 March 2024 to 30 April 2024 after obtaining ethical approval from the Institutional Review Board. Convenience sampling was done. Data were collected using Edmonton Frail Scale Acute Care Version by face-to-face interview technique. Data were entered and analyzed in IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0.

Results: Among 168 elderly patients, 75 (44.64%) [37.12–52.16, 95% Confidence Interval] were found to be frail whereas 93 (55.36%) were not frail (non-frail+vulnerable). After multivariate binary logistic regression analysis, the independent factors of frailty are age (AOR 3.942; CI 1.737-8.950), number of medicines (AOR 9.721; CI 3.408-27.729) and physical activity (AOR 0.233; CI 0.81-0.674).

Conclusions: The prevalence of frailty among elderly people in this study was comparable to similar studies in different settings. The associated factors of frailty were found to be age, physical activity and number of medicines taken in our study. These factors could be taken into consideration while doing health assessment of the elderly.