Mobilization and outcome status of older patients with frailty in an emergency and critical care center

Abstract

Purpose: To retrospectively investigate the prevalence of frailty in older patients admitted to an emergency and critical care center and treated with physical therapy interventions and mobilization and outcome status of older patients with frailty.

Method: The participants were patients aged 65 years or older who entered the emergency and critical care center of our hospital from April, 2016 to January, 2019 and underwent physical therapy. Institutionalized and deceased patients were excluded. Subsequently, we defined frailty as the condition with Clinical Frailty Scale score of 5 or higher, classified patients into the frailty and non-frailty groups, and compared their clinical characteristics.

Result: The frailty and non-frailty groups consisted of 36 (23%) and 123 patients, respectively. The frailty group was significantly older and had a higher rate of ventilator use than the non-frailty group. In addition, the proportion of patients who were able to start walking during hospitalization, ICU Mobility Scale at discharge, and rate of patients discharged were significantly lower in the frailty group. However, the results adjusted for sex and age showed no significant association with discharge rates.

Conclusion: Older patients who presented with frailty before admission were unable to begin gait practice during hospitalization, suggesting that they may have decreased mobility at discharge, but this was not associated with the outcome.