Frailty, depression, and quality of life: a study with elderly caregivers

to analyze the relationship between frailty, depressive symptoms, and quality of life of elderly caregivers of other elderly living in high social vulnerability.

Methods:

a descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study conducted with 40 elderly caregivers. A questionnaire to characterize elderly caregivers, the Fried frailty phenotype, the Geriatric Depression Scale (to screen depressive symptoms) and the Short-Form 6 Dimension (to assess quality of life) were used. For data analysis, Student’s t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s χ² and Fisher’s exact test were used.

Results:

most were pre-frail (52.5%) and had no evidence of depressive symptoms (57.5%). They presented, on average, a score of 0.76 (±0.1) in relation to quality of life. Statistical significance was observed between the average scores of quality of life with depressive symptoms (p=0.012) and frailty level (p=0.004).

Conclusion:

frail elderly caregivers with depressive symptoms had a worse perception of quality of life.

Descriptors:
Caregivers; Frail Elderly; Depression; Quality of Life; Geriatric Nursing

Variable	Category	n	%	Mean	SD	Median	Min-Max
Sex	Female	27	67.5
Age (years)				70.1	8.2	68.5	60-98
Age group	60-69 years old	22	55.0
Color	White	18	45.0
Marital status	Married	35	87.5
Years of study				1.8	2.3	1.0	0-12
Education	Elementary school	16	40.0
Family arrangement	Living with a partner	37	92.5
Currently working	No	33	82.5
Retirement	Yes	29	72.5
Income (reais^* * reais is the Brazilian currency; 1 real corresponds to about 5.21 US dollars). )				781.2	382.0	780.0	0-2000.0
Health insurance	No	36	90.0
Perception of health	Adequate	19	47.5
Smoking	Never smoked	17	42.5
Ethics	No	36	90.0

Variables	Categories	n	(%)^* * The sum of the percentage frequencies that did not reach 100.0% is due to the fact that some variables were not answered by all elderly individuals.
Unintentional weight loss	No	16	40.0
	Yes	21	52.5
Reduced physical activity	No	14	35.0
	Yes	25	62.5
Fatigue	No	26	65.0
	Yes	14	35.0
Low handgrip strength	No	17	42.5
	Yes	23	57.5
Slow gait	No	17	42.5
	Yes	23	57.5
Fragility level	Non-frail	17	42.5
	Pre-frail	21	52.5
	Frail	2	5.0

Frailty	Depressive Symptoms		p value
Frailty	No n (%)	Yes n (%)	p value
Frailty levels
Non-frail	12 (52.2)	5 (29.4)	0.132¹ 1 χ2 de Pearson;
Frail	11 (47.8)	12 (70.6)
Components of frailty
Unintentional weight loss
No	15 (75.0)	3 (35.3)	0.017² 2 Exato de Fisher.
Yes	5 (25.0)	11 (64.7)
Reduced physical activity
No	11 (47.8)	3 (18.7)	0.062² 2 Exato de Fisher.
Yes	12 (52.2)	13 (81.3)
Fatigue
No	18 (78.3)	8 (47.1)	0.044¹ 1 χ2 de Pearson;
Yes	5 (21.7)	9 (52.9)
Low handgrip strength
No	10 (43.5)	7 (41.2)	0.571¹ 1 χ2 de Pearson;
Yes	13 (56.5)	10 (58.2)
Slow gait
No	9 (39.1)	8 (47.1)	0.429¹ 1 χ2 de Pearson;
Yes	14 (60.9)	9 (52.9)

Variable	Categories	Mean score (SD)	p value
Depressive symptoms	Without depressive symptoms	0.8 (0.1)	0.012^* * Student's t-test;
	With depressive symptoms	0.7 (0.1)
Frailty	Non-frail	1.0 (0.0)	0.004^ ANOVA; SD - standard deviation.
	Pre-frail	0.8 (0.1)
	Frail	0.7 (0.1)
Unintentional weight loss	No	0.8 (0.1)	0.103^* * Student's t-test;
	Yes	0.7 (0.1)
Reduced physical activity	No	0.8 (0.1)	0.015^* * Student's t-test;
	Yes	0.7 (0.1)
Fatigue	No	0.8 (0.1)	0.318^* * Student's t-test;
	Yes	0.7 (0.2)
Low handgrip strength	No	0.8 (0.1)	0.07^* * Student's t-test;
	Yes	0.7 (0.1)
Slow gait	No	0.8 (0.1)	0.447^* * Student's t-test;
	Yes	0.7 (0.1)

Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem SGA Norte Quadra 603 Conj. "B" - Av. L2 Norte 70830-102 Brasília, DF, Brasil, Tel.: (55 61) 3226-0653, Fax: (55 61) 3225-4473 - Brasília - DF - Brazil
E-mail: reben@abennacional.org.br

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[1] Corresponding author: Ariene Angelini dos Santos-Orlandi E-mail: arieneangelini@yahoo.com.br