Frailty change based on minimally important difference in nursing home residents: FIRST cohort study findings.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Frailty is common among residential aged care services (RACS) residents; however, little is known about how frailty changes over time in this population. This study aimed to estimate minimally important difference (MID) in frailty to then describe: frailty change over 12 months; and factors associated with worsening frailty.

Methods

Prospective cohort study across 12 RACS sites of a single aged care organisation in South Australia (n = 548 residents, mean age 87.7 ± 7.2 years, 72.6% female). Frailty was measured using a frailty index (FI) with 12 months between baseline and follow-up. MID was calculated cross-sectionally (anchor-based using self-reported health, and ½SD for distribution-based).

Results

Between-person MID for the FI was identified as 0.037 (

SUBMITTER: Thompson MQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9642811 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature