Prevalence of Frailty and Evaluation of Associated Variables Among COPD Patients

Abstract

Lara de Souza Dias,1 Anna Carolina Galvão Ferreira,1 José Laerte Rodrigues da Silva Junior,2 Marcus Barreto Conte,3 Marcelo Fouad Rabahi1 1Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil; 2Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Rio Verde, Aparecida de Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil; 3Faculdade de Medicina, Faculdade Arthur Sá Earp Neto, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, BrasilCorrespondence: Lara de Souza Dias Viela Gabriela Augusta Nascimento Qd.B Lt.7H Centro, CEP:75640-000, Piracanjuba, Goiás, BrasilEmail [email protected]: Frailty in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients has been associated with a higher rate of incidents, longer duration of hospitalization, poorer quality of life, and higher mortality.Objective: To measure the prevalence of frailty among COPD patients and to evaluate associated variables.Methods: A cross-sectional study. Subjects who visited a State Center for High-Cost Medicines to obtain free monthly COPD medicines were considered eligible. Individuals ≥ 40 years old who had a FEV1/FVC ratio of < 0.7 post-bronchodilation were enrolled. The Fatigue, Resistance, Ambulation, Illnesses, and Loss of weight (FRAIL) scale, Medical Research Council dyspnea scale (MRC), COPD Assessment Test (CAT), a combination of CAT/MRC [(CAT/8)+MRC], and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) severity scale were used to evaluate the enrolled subjects. Variables associated with frailty were analyzed using an ordered logistic regression and a multivariate logistic regression.Results: The prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty among the 153 COPD subjects enrolled was 50.3% (77/153) and 35.3% (54/153), respectively. Frailty scores were correlated with CAT (correlation coefficient [cc]: 0.52, p < 0.001) and MRC (cc: 0.48, p < 0.001). Ordinal regression models showed that MRC and CAT were associated with fragility (p < 0.0001 for both models). Higher odds of frailty were observed in GOLD groups B (p = 0.04) and D (p = 0.02). Multiple logistic regression revealed that the combination CAT/MRC≥ 5.5 was associated with frailty (OR 6.73; p < 0.0001) and had a specificity of 80.3%, sensitivity of 62.3%, and positive and negative predictive values of 76.2% and67.8%, respectively.Conclusion: Frailty prevalence was high and was correlated with higher MRC and CAT scores. The CAT/MRC combination [(CAT/8)+MRC] ≥ 5.5 was highly associated with frailty, suggesting that an additional specific evaluation for the presence of frailty is indicated.Keywords: frailty, pulmonary disease, chronic obstructive

Keywords

• frailty
• pulmonary disease
• chronic obstructive