Frailty syndrome and risks for falling in the elderly community

To identify the prevalence of Frailty Syndrome in the elderly and the relationship with risk of falling. Descriptive, cross-sectional, and analytical clinical study. One hundred and one volunteers over 60 years old were submitted to audiological evaluation, Dynamic Gait Index - Brazilian brief (DGI)...

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Published inCoDAS (São Paulo) Vol. 34; no. 6; p. e20210025
Main Authors Taguchi, Carlos Kazuo, Menezes, Pedro de Lemos, Melo, Amanda Caroline Souza, Santana, Leonardo Santos de, Conceição, Wesley Rayan Santos, Souza, Gabrielle Feitosa de, Araújo, Brenda Carla Lima, Silva, Allan Robert da
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Brazil Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia 01.01.2022
Subjects
Accidental Falls - prevention & control
Aged
Cross-Sectional Studies
Frail Elderly
Frailty - diagnosis
Frailty - epidemiology
Gait
Geriatric Assessment
Humans
Middle Aged
Original
Postural Balance
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Summary:To identify the prevalence of Frailty Syndrome in the elderly and the relationship with risk of falling. Descriptive, cross-sectional, and analytical clinical study. One hundred and one volunteers over 60 years old were submitted to audiological evaluation, Dynamic Gait Index - Brazilian brief (DGI), Timed Up and Go (TUG) and Edmonton Fragility Scale (EFE) that verified, respectively, hearing thresholds, frailty syndrome, functional and dynamic balance, and risk of falling. The simple percentual distribution, the Wilcoxon´s test and the Bivariate Correlation with Pearson's coefficient were used for statistical analysis. Limits equal to or less than 1.0 and 5.0% were adopted. EFE identified 22.8% of volunteers as fragile and 22.8% as vulnerable. DGI and TUG found 34.6% and 84.1% of at risk for falls, respectively. Significant correlations between EFE and DGI (p <0.01), EFE and TUG (p <0.01), and DGI and TUG (p <0.01) were observed. Pearson's coefficient between EFE and DGI, EFE and TUG, and DGI and TUG were -0.26, -0.41, and 0.46, respectively. An association between DGI and TUG and age (p <0.01) was identified. No correlation between EFE and sex or age was found. Frailty and pre-frailty were identified in a significant segment of the volunteers, especially in the oldest subjects. Functional and dynamic balance were moderately correlated with frailty, which demonstrated that frailty syndrome increases the risk of falls.
Bibliography:Author contributions :CKT contributed to project implementation, was involved in the volunteer recruitment process, assisted with the collection, tabulation and analysis of data, and wrote the final version of the manuscript; PLM performed the data analysis and revision of the final draft; ACMS collected the data; LSS, WRSC and GFS contributed to the data collection and to the literature review; BCLM supervised the work and collaborated in the writing of the final draft. ARS participated in sample selection and statistical analysis.
Conflict of interests: nothing to declare.
ISSN:2317-1782
2317-1782
DOI:10.1590/2317-1782/20212021025en