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Success of Simpler Modified Fried Frailty Scale to Predict Mortality among Nursing Home Residents

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The journal of nutrition, health & aging

An Erratum to this article was published on 06 March 2021

This article has been updated

Abstract

Objective

Fried frailty scale is the very first and most commonly used assessment scale for an operational definition of frailty with its demonstrated success as a predictor of mobility limitations and mortality. However, it is impractical for use in routine clinical practice. We aimed to study whether a simpler modified Fried frailty scale could predict mortality among nursing home residents.

Design

Retrospective longitudinal follow-up study.

Setting

Nursing home. Baseline evaluation was performed in 2009. Mortality was assessed after 4 year.

Participants

Two hundred-twenty-four participants were included.

Measurements

Residents were assessed for demographic characteristics, falls, dementia, the number of regular medications and chronic diseases, body composition by bioimpedance analysis, basic and instrumental activities of daily living besides frailty status by a modified Fried frailty scale. The residents were assessed for mortality after a median follow-up time of 46 months. The association of frailty with mortality was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier Log-rank test and multivariate Cox Regression analysis.

Results

Mortality occurred in 90 (40.2%) of the residents. In multivariate analysis, frailty was an independent predictor of death (Hazzard ratio= 1.4, 95% confidence interval= 1.03–2.6, p=0.03) when adjusted by age, sex, presence of malnutrition, low muscle mass, number of chronic diseases and regular medications.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that the simpler modified Fried frailty scale can be used as a screening tool for frailty in everyday practice as a tool to identify risky patients for mortality. Future reports studying its role in predicting other adverse outcomes associated with frailty are needed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, Istanbul Medical School, Istanbul University, Capa, 34390, Istanbul, Turkey

    Gulistan Bahat, B. Ilhan, A. Tufan & M. A. Karan

  2. Istanbul Kayisdagi Nursing Home, Kayisdagi, 34755, Istanbul, Turkey

    H. Dogan

Authors
  1. Gulistan Bahat
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  2. B. Ilhan
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  3. A. Tufan
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  4. H. Dogan
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  5. M. A. Karan
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Contributions

Author Contributions: This study was designed by all authors. Data were obtained by BI, HD and AT. Statistical analysis was performed by GB. GB, BI and MAK prepared the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gulistan Bahat.

Ethics declarations

Ethical Standarts: The manuscript complies with the Ethical Rules for publication.

Ethical standards: The authors declare that the study procedures comply with current ethical standards for research involving human participants in Turkey. The study protocol had been approved by the ethical committee of Istanbul University, Istanbul Medical School.

Additional information

Disclosure statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The study received no financial support.

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Bahat, G., Ilhan, B., Tufan, A. et al. Success of Simpler Modified Fried Frailty Scale to Predict Mortality among Nursing Home Residents. J Nutr Health Aging 25, 606–610 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-020-1582-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-020-1582-2

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