FRAILTY IN OLDER ADULTS (>50 YEARS) LIVING WITH HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV). A CARE PROPOSAL

Abstract

The aim of the proposed study is to estimate the period prevalence of frailty using two different approaches in a cohort of HIV patients engaged in care at the Southern Alberta Clinic. This population differs from previous studies of frailty in HIV by the inclusion of a broad and heterogeneous patient population. Another novel element will be the use of a second frailty measure, the Clinical Frailty Scale, which is widely used in care settings. Patients will be grouped by sex and age intervals (50–54, 55–59, 60–64, 65–69 and over 70 years) in order to determine the age-related period prevalence of frailty within the clinic population and to identify potential predictive variables for the development of frailty in PLWHA, such as age, sex, duration of known HIV infection, presence or absence of AIDS, specific age-related co-morbidity, multi-morbidity (defined as 2 or more of these co morbidities), nadir CD4 count, duration of unsuppressed viremia and exposure to both antiviral therapy (ART) and individual agents. This data is routinely collected as part of care and is readily available through the SAC database. The period prevalence of frailty in the study population will be compared to published data on similarly aged populations as well as in older populations (e.g., older adults in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging). By the time of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics 21st World Congress, in 2017, our study group anticipates having preliminary results from our study, including period prevelence of frailty, using two different frailty scales, as well as preliminary evaluation of potential risk factors for frailty, Potential long-term implications of this research project range from better care of aging PLWHA to improved planning for future clinic and societal resources to deal with the needs of HIV-infected patients.