Frailty is associated with sociodemographic and health factors and related to the care context of older caregivers: a Brazilian cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

The task of caring can arise suddenly without guidance or support, resulting in psychological tension and health impairment, which can culminate in the development of frailty.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the relationship between frailty and sociodemographic and health aspects related to the care context of older caregivers.

DESIGN AND SETTING

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 65 older caregivers registered in family health units in the interior of the state of São Paulo.

METHODS

The participants were interviewed individually using the following instruments: a characterization questionnaire, Fried's frailty phenotype, Zarit Burden's Interview, Mini-Mental State Examination, Geriatric Depression Scale, Katz Index, and Lawton Scale. In addition, the following statistical tests were applied: Pearson's chi-squared test, Fisher's exact test, and Mann-Whitney test. A significance level of 5% was considered to be statistically significant.

RESULTS

Women who took care of their spouses predominated without prior training or the help of other people. Most of the patients were pre-frail (72.3%). Frailty was significantly related to marital status (P = 0.016), depressive symptoms (P = 0.029), cognitive decline (P = 0.029), the degree of kinship (P = 0.015), and burden (P = 0.004).

CONCLUSION

Older caregivers without a partner, with severe depressive symptoms and cognitive changes, who cared for their parents, and had higher levels of burden, presented a higher proportion of frailty.