Frailty in self-neglecting older adults: A secondary analysis |
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| Authors: | Jessica L. Lee MD MS Jason Burnett PhD Carmel B. Dyer MD |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), Houston, Texas, USA;2. Texas Elder Abuse and Mistreatment Institute, Houston, Texas, USA;3. UTHealth Consortium on Aging, Houston, Texas, USAJessica.Lee@uth.tmc.edu;5. UTHealth Consortium on Aging, Houston, Texas, USA |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACTSelf-neglect (SN) and frailty in older adults is associated with increased disability and mortality. Despite these commonalities, there have been no studies objectively assessing frailty in older adults who SN. This secondary analysis classified frailty in N = 37 older adults with Adult Protective Services validated SN using the Fried Frailty Phenotype (FFP) of weight loss, weakness, exhaustion, activity level, and walking speed. Overall, 3% were classified as robust, 62% as prefrail, and 35% as frail. Most (72%) were overweight/obese, with clinically significant decreases in activity level (60%) and walking speed (97%). Compared to the original FFP population, older adults who SN exhibit important differences in frailty phenotypes, and finding that the largest percentage of older adults who SN were prefrail may indicate a critical opportunity for intervening in this population to reduce future functional decline and mortality. |
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| Keywords: | Elder abuse elder mistreatment elder self-neglect frailty |
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