Critically ill individuals who had higher levels of clinical frailty when they were admitted to an emergency department for their illness had nearly double the risk of death in the short-, mid-, and long-term periods after admission, a new study finds.
The report was published Monday in BMC Geriatrics.
Researchers wanted to see if the Clinical Frailty Score could predict death in critically ill older adults (over the age of 70) who were admitted to a single emergency department.
A total of 402 patients were included in the researchers’ short- and mid-term analyses; 302 people were discharged alive and went on to be included in a long-term analysis of 6.5 to 7.5 years. Of the 302 patients discharged alive, 83.8% died before the final follow-up.
Researchers found significant associations between CFS and death 30 days after people were admitted to the ED, at one year after admission and 6.5 to 7.5 years after discharge (in those who were discharged alive).
The odds of dying within 30 days after being admitted to the ED were 2.07 times higher if a person was deemed frail. There was a 1.75 times higher risk for death a year after being admitted to the hospital when the person was frail, and a 1.66 times higher risk for death several years later.
The effect of a person’s CFS score on their risk of death stayed the same after researchers adjusted for other factors, the data showed.
“This information is clinically relevant, since individualized treatment and care planning for older adults should consider risk of death in different time perspectives,” the authors wrote.
