Family insuficiency and the condition and the physical frailty’s components of elderly in ambulatorial care^a

ABSTRACT

Objective  to analyze the relationship between family insufficiency and the condition and the markers of physical frailty of elderly people followed up in a Geriatrics and Gerontology outpatient clinic.

Method  a quantitative and cross-sectional study conducted with 384 elderly (≥ 60 years) selected by pre-established inclusion and exclusion criteria. Physical frailty was assessed according to the frailty phenotype and family insufficiency by the Family APGAR. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and univariate analysis using the chi-square test with a statistical significance level of p≤0.05.

Results  there was no association between family insufficiency and physical frailty (p=0.344), however, it was observed a percentage of frail elderlies with high Family Dysfunction (22.2%) and moderate Family Dysfunction (19.4%), higher than that observed among the elderly with good family functioning (12.2%). Among the frail elderly for the marker “fatigue/exhaustion”, there was a direct proportionality to the degree of Family Dysfunction and a statistically significant relation to the total score of the Family APGAR (p=0.001).

Conclusion and implications for the practice  family frailty in the elderly is related to other intra-family factors and not exclusively to physical frailty, however, it can be stated that the degree of physical frailty among the elderly is directly proportional to the level of Family Dysfunction.

Keywords:  Ambulatory Care; Family; Family Relations; Frail Elderly; Geriatric Nursing