Abstract

ORUETA SANCHEZ, Ramón et al. Fragile Elderly people and Quality of life. Rev Clin Med Fam [online]. 2008, vol.2, n.3, pp.101-105. ISSN 2386-8201.

Objective. To determine the subjective deterioration in quality of life in elderly people who met frailty criteria. Design. Cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study. Setting. Primary Care, Health Area Participants. Elderly people with signs of frailty. Exclusion criteria: frail elderly people who, due to their physical or mental impairment, were unable to complete the questionnaires or did not want to take part (total 8.5 %). Main measurements. Primary variable: Nottingham Health Profi le (NHP) quality of life questionnaire. Other variables were: socio-demographic data (age, gender and co-residence), number of chronic diseases, number of drugs being taken, and Barthel’s index for functional capacity. Results. The mean age of the participants was 81.4 years, 67.5% were women and 33.7% lived alone. The mean number of chronic diseases was 3.2 and the mean number of drugs being taken was 4.7. The percentage of overall deterioration on the NHP was 25.6 (95% CI 22.8-28.3), This percentage deterioration varied among the dimensions: energy (26.1; 21.2-31), pain (20.5; 16.8-24.3), physical mobility (32.5; 28.6-36.5), emotional reactions (23.7; 20.4-27.1), sleep (33.8; 29-38.5) and social isolation (17.2; 14.3-20.1). The degree of overall deterioration was associated, in a statistically signifi cant manner, with older age, co-residence outside the family, higher number of chronic diseases, higher number of drugs being taken and lower functional capacity. Conclusions. There is a signifi cant level of subjective deterioration in the quality of life in frail elderly people. Including the subjective evaluation of quality of life in the overall assessment of this type of patient would seem justified.

Keywords : Frail elderly; Quality of life.

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