Frailty assessment among the elderly with cardiovascular diseases

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular diseases and frailty are two distinct yet commonly associated conditions. Our study aimed to describe the frailty profile among hospitalized elderly people with cardiovascular diseases.Methods: This was a descriptive single-center study. Consecutive patients admitted to the cardiology department aged 65 years and older were enrolled from January to June 2022. The Fried Frailty Phenotype (FFP) and the Arabic Mini-Mental State Examination (A-MMSE) scores were both computed to assess physical and cognitive frailty.The patients were thereafter split into 4 groups: group 1: pre-frail or robust; Group 2: frail (FFP≥3); Group A: no dementia; Group B: patients with dementia (A-MMSE ≤ 24). We studied each group’s main characteristics and then analyzed the factors associated with frailty.Results: A total of 100 patients were included with a gender ratio of 1.94 and a mean age of 73.2 ± 6.3 years. The proportion of physical frailty was 59%. The mean FFP score was 2.5 ± 1.9. Dementia was found in 55% of cases. The A-MMSE score was significantly lower among frail patients (p<0.001) and dementia was noted for 85% of that group. The two scores correlated strongly (r=-0.712; p<0.001).In multivariate analysis, illiteracy, diabetes, and coronary artery disease were found to be associated with physical (OR=1.84, OR=8.05, OR=23.03 respectively) and cognitive frailty (OR=1.89, OR=3.52, OR=10.05 respectively).Conclusion: In our study population, both physical and cognitive frailty were present. This suggests that frailty evaluation of elderly patients with cardiovascular diseases should be integrated into our routine.