Association Between Physical Functioning and Time Until a New Hospitalization in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Hospitalization, a significant cause of increased health expenses among older people, when combined with preexisting impairments, is associated with poor health status in this population. 1 Frequent and prolonged hospitalizations negatively affect health, decrease quality of life and physical test, and gait speed using the 4-m walk test. The association between poor physical functioning and new hospitalization was verified using a Cox regression model, adjusted for sex, age, number of comorbidities, number of medications, and BMI. Models were implemented separately for each physical functioning test. Results: In the sample, 32% had been hospitalized at least once in 5 years. The Kaplan-Meier curve showed a decrease in the probability of nonhospitalization within the next 5 years. Cox regression analysis showed an association between hospitalization within the next 5 years and mobility on the TUG test of more than 12.4 seconds in the crude (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.10-1.60) and adjusted models (HR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.02-1.56), and balance using the step test of more than 7.5 seconds in the crude (HR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.03-1.56) model. Conclusions: Physical functioning tests demonstrated that poor physical performance predicts new hospitalization, and reinforced the importance of their application in physical therapy practice in primary health care settings.