Frailty syndrome and quality of life in hospitalized older adults

Abstract

Objective to analyze the relationship between frailty syndrome and quality of life in hospitalized older adults. Methods a quantitative cross-sectional study of 323 older individuals was carried out at university hospitals of Paraíba from August 2019 to July 2020. Data were analyzed by SPSS, version 26.0, using Pearson´s chi-square, Spearman´s correlation and multiple logistic regression for sociodemographic, frailty and quality of life variables. Results regarding participant profile, 60.7% were women, 49.2% aged 60-69 years, 51% had a partner, 67.8% were literate, 89.2% lived with at least 1 other person, 78.3% were not working, and 57.9% received ≤ 1 minimum wage. Frailty syndrome was significantly associated with gender, age, literacy, work status, income, and quality of life. Quality of life was statistically significantly associated with only gender and work status. Results showed that illiteracy, not working and low quality of life increased the probability of frailty syndrome by 3.04 (95%CI; 1.70–5.4), 4.51 (95%CI; 2.39–8.49), and 3.81 (95%CI; 2.22–6.53), respectively; while not working increased the probability of low quality of life.by 2.61 (95%CI;1,45–4,73). Conclusions frailty syndrome was associated with low quality of life in the hospitalized older adults, indicating the need for measures by hospital managers to improve care beyond the clinical conditions addressed in routine practice.