Association between Frailty and Public Health Care Services Utilization among Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Frailty leads to exceedingly high budgets for the public health system with maintenance and rehabilitation of health services. To evaluate the association between frailty and Health Care Services utilization among older people enrolled at Primary Health Care (PHC). cross-sectional study. Territory of units of PHC, in older people’s home. The sample was composed of older people enrolled in 14 PHC teams, divided into 12 Primary care units. Health care services utilization was assessed by self-report medical consultations at the primary and secondary levels, participation in groups, home visits and hospitalization. Frailty was identified by the Frailty Phenotype. The association between frailty and health care services utilization was verified by crude and adjusted logistic regression models, at significance level of 0.05. The total sample was 496 older people with a mean age of 71 years (± 6.93), 62.2% females. In the univariate analyses, frailty was associated with all investigated health care services (p < 0.05). In the crude models, frail older people had higher odds of hospitalization compared to non-frail counterparts (OR = 2.91, 95% CI 1.43–5.88). Considering the adjusted models, clinical and sociodemographic variables showed an association with health care services utilization but not with frailty. Frailty was not directly associated with health care service utilization. However, it has multidimensional level and can be influenced by other factors.