Department of Medicine, University of Alberta.
Can J Aging. 2011 Dec;30(4):647-55. doi: 10.1017/S0714980811000511. Epub 2011 Oct 3.
Frailty puts individuals at increased risk for poor health outcomes. Elderly individuals use a disproportionate amount of emergency department (ED) resources. To investigate the relationship between frailty markers and the effect on ED use by community-dwelling seniors, we conducted a secondary analysis of a 22-month prospective randomized control trial in Montreal, Canada, using the Service Intégrés pour les Personnes Âgées en Perte d'Autonomie (SIPA) database. We assessed a sample of 565 individuals using five frailty markers: physical activity, strength, cognition, energy, and mobility. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression was performed to assess for potential relationship between frailty markers and ED visits. The findings revealed that 70 per cent of the participants had at least three frailty markers. No relationship was found between frailty markers and ED visits. These results suggest that in severely functionally disabled, community-dwelling elderly, the presence of frailty markers does not appear to predict ED visits.
衰弱使个体面临健康状况不佳的风险增加。老年人使用急诊科 (ED) 资源的比例不成比例。为了研究虚弱标志物与社区居住的老年人使用 ED 的关系，我们使用加拿大蒙特利尔的 Service Intégrés pour les Personnes Âgées en Perte d'Autonomie (SIPA) 数据库对一项为期 22 个月的前瞻性随机对照试验进行了二次分析。我们使用 5 种虚弱标志物（体力活动、力量、认知、能量和移动能力）评估了 565 名个体。采用单变量和多变量逻辑回归来评估虚弱标志物与 ED 就诊之间的潜在关系。研究结果表明，70%的参与者至少有 3 种虚弱标志物。虚弱标志物与 ED 就诊之间没有发现关系。这些结果表明，在严重功能障碍的社区居住的老年人中，虚弱标志物的存在似乎并不能预测 ED 就诊。
