Abstract
Objective
to assess the prevalence of frailty and associated factors in old people affected by cerebrovascular accident (CVA)
Method
a cross-sectional study with patients aged 60 years or older assisted in a neurology outpatient clinic. Data were collected by a questionnaire containing sociodemographic, clinical, lifestyle, and assistance data in the rehabilitation area, and by the Mini-Mental State Examination and Edmonton Frail Scale.
Results
The study population comprised 69 old people with an average age of 72 (±7.4) years. Among the frail patients were the longest-lived individuals (90.9%), females (92.3%), with marital status representing having had a partner at some point in life (separated, divorced, or widowed - 94.4%), those who did not live alone (80.3%), with no education (80.6%) and income (100%), and self-declared to be black (100%) or spiritist (100%). Most did not present any comorbidities nor harmful lifestyle habits, except for systemic arterial hypertension. There was also low assistance in the rehabilitation area. The MMSE assessment indicated altered mental status for 83.7% of frail old people. Significant associations were found between frailty and marital status (p=0.042), with the presence of diabetes mellitus (p=0.002), and absence of acute myocardial infarction (p=0.030).
Conclusion
We suggest further studies to follow this type of population affected by CVA from hospitalization to rehabilitation discharge to clarify the process of functional and cognitive decline and its relation with frailty.
Keywords
Health of the Elderly; Frailty; Stroke