Abstract
Background and aims
Frailty is a common situation that often influences clinical outcomes, disability or institutionalization. The present study aims to evaluate the weight of hand grip strength (HGS) reduction in terms of death or re-hospitalizations, at 3-month and 1-year follow-up.
Methods
Observational study performed on hospitalized patients aged 65 years or more. The HGS was measured twice: at hospital admission and discharge. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS, version 18 for Windows. The χ 2 test was used to evaluate the relationship between HGS and different variables. Three-month and 1-year survival and hospital re-admissions have been analyzed using Kaplan–Meier’s curves. The analyses have been adjusted for age and gender.
Results
A total of 201 hospitalized patients have been recruited. Of them, 76 were males. The mean age was 81.79 ± 7.409 years. Of all the patients enrolled, 66.2 and 45.3 % did not show any impairment performing activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, respectively. Moreover, patients were not cognitively impaired [SPMSQ (short portable mental status questionnaire ) m ± SD = 1.47 ± 0.794]. At 3-month follow-up patients with strength reduction had a relative risk of death more than seven times higher than the others (p = 0.047). Same results were observed at 1-year follow-up (95 % CI = 1.85–9.84; p = 0.000). There was no significant relationship between HGS and hospital re-admissions.
Conclusions
Effects of strength reduction occurring during a period of hospitalization could produce effects even after hospitalization itself. This increases the relevance of maintaining usual physical performance of patients even during hospitalization.
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Isaia, G., Greppi, F., Pastorino, A. et al. Predictive effects of muscle strength after hospitalization in old patients. Aging Clin Exp Res 25, 633–636 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-013-0162-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-013-0162-2