Frailty Trends in an Older Veteran Subpopulation 1 Year Prior and Into the COVID-19 Pandemic Using CAN Scores.

Abstract

We studied the effects of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic on frailty trends in a subset of older veterans at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System. We identified 3538 and 6103 veterans aged 70 to 75 years as of February 8, 2019, with a calculated Care Assessment Need (CAN) score of ≥ 75 for 1-year mortality and hospitalization, respectively. After excluding veterans with insufficient 2020 and 2021 data, we compared the difference in 1-year mortality and hospitalization CAN scores from 2019 to 2020 with 2020 to 2021 using a paired t test. The difference in mean (SD) 1-year mortality CAN scores from 2020 to 2021 was 0.2 (13.4) when compared with the previous year's -4.9 (12.5) (P < .0001), indicating increased frailty. The difference in 1-year hospitalization CAN scores from 2020 to 2021 was -1.5 (12.0) when compared with the previous year's -2.8 (9.9) (P < .0001). Frailty in our veteran subpopulation as calculated by 1-year mortality CAN scores increased in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic when compared with a recovering trend the previous year.