Factors associated with frailty in older users of Primary Health Care services from a city in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Objective To estimate the prevalence of frailty syndrome and its association with socioeconomic, demographic and health variables, in elderly people treated at two Health Units in the city of Rio Branco, Acre, from October 2016 to June 2017. Method The prevalence of frailty was measured using the Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS), and associations were tested with selected variables. Poisson regression, with robust variance and 95% confidence intervals, was used to estimate the prevalence ratios and define the adjusted model. All analyzes took into account the sample weights and were performed using SPSS version 20. Results It was found that 35.1% of the sample showed fragility. The prevalence of frailty was associated with being 75 years old or more, physical inactivity, nutritional risk, cognitive deficit, negative health perception, using 5 or more medications and having/history of cancer, falls in past year, living alone, unsatisfactory neighborhood safety and being of ethnicity/non-white color. Conclusion The alert profile for screening for frailty was verified, which may assist in the clinical practice of FHS professionals in the study population, and also considers the need to implement and strengthen eldely's health care programs and performance of the Family Health Support Centers.