Elderly who take care of elderly: a study on the Frailty Syndrome

Identifying prevalence of frailty in elderly caregivers inserted in a high social vulnerability context and its correlation with sociodemographic and health aspects.

Method:

Descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study. Forty elderly caregivers were evaluated with: questionnaire for caregiver characterization, Mini Mental State Examination, Katz Index, Lawton instrumental activities of daily living scale, Geriatric Depression Scale and the frailty phenotype proposed by Fried. Interviews were conducted at their residences and scheduled in advance. All ethical precautions were observed. Data were analyzed with the Stata statistical program version 11.0.

Results:

10% of elderly caregivers were frail. There was a significant correlation between frailty and sex, instrumental activities of daily living and cognition.

Conclusion:

Female caregivers, partially dependent individuals regarding instrumental activities of daily living and with worse cognitive state deserve a special attention from health services.

Descriptors:
Caregivers; Fragile Elderly; Geriatric Nursing; Social Vulnerability; Family Health

Questions	Categories	n	(%*)	Mean (SD)	[Min-Max]	Median
Sex	Female	27	67.5
Age (years)				70.1 (8.2)	[60-98]	68.5
Age group	60-69 years old	22	55.0
Marital status	Married	35	87.5
Family arrangement	Live with spouse	37	92.5
Years of education				1.8 (2.3)	[0-12]	1.0
Educational level	One to four years	16	40.0
Currently have a job	No	33	82.5
Retirement	Yes	29	72.5
Income (dollars)				781.2 (382.0)	[0-2000]	780.0
Health plan	No	36	90.0
Health perception	Reasonable	19	47.5
Arterial Hypertension	Yes	25	62.5
Smoking	Never smoked	17	42.5
Alcoholism	No	36	90.0
IADL	Independence	21	52.5
BADL	Independence	29	72.5
GDS Score				4.5 (2.8)	[0-9]	4.0
GDS	No signs of depression	23	57.5
MMSE Score				21.5 (4.7)	[9-29]	22.0
MMSE Result	Without evidence of changes	37	92.5
Level of frailty	Pre-frail	20	50.0

Frailty	n	Mean	Standard error	S-D^* * S-D = standard deviation;	CI^† † CI = confidence interval;	p value
Not frail	17	23.82	0.86	3.55	21.99-25.65	0.003^‡ ‡ p < 0.05 according to the t-test.
Frail	23	19.80	1.01	4.87	17.67-21.89

Questions	Not frail (%)	Frail (%)	p value
Sex			0.044^ p < 0.05.
Female	47.1	78.3
Male	52.9	21.7
Age group			0.677
60 to 74 years old	88.2	78.3
75 years old or older	11.8	21.7
Marital status			0.197
Married	94.1	82.6
Single	5.9	0.0
Divorced	0.0	4.4
Widower	0.0	13.0
Health self-perception			0.598
Excellent	5.9	4.4
Good	23.5	30.4
Moderate	58.8	39.1
Bad	11.8	26.1
Arterial hypertension			0.107
Yes	47.0	73.9
No	53.0	26.1
Geriatric Depression Scale			0.202
No signs of depression	70.6	47.8
Signs of depression	29.4	52.2
Smoking			0.912
Currently smokes	17.6	17.4
Used to be a smoker	35.3	43.5
Never smoked	47.1	39.1
Alcoholism			1.000
Yes	11.8	8.7
No	88.2	91.3
IADL			0.002^ p < 0.05.
Independence	82.3	30.4
Partial dependence	17.7	69.6
BADL			0.626
Independence	76.5	69.6
Moderate dependence	23.5	21.7
Severe dependence	0.0	8.7
Health plan			1.000
Yes	11.8	8.7
No	88.2	91.3
Currently have a job			0.432
Yes	23.5	13.0
No	76.5	87.0
Retirement			0.730
Yes	76.5	69.6
No	23.5	30.4

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. Email: arieneangelini@yahoo.com.br