Assessment of Frailty in the Elderly

AIM: This study aimed to evaluate frailty in older individuals and to identify factors related to frailty. METHOD: The descriptive, and cross-sectional study was conducted with 111 elderly patients who received inpatient treatment in a university hospital between January and September 2016. Ethics committee approval, institutional consent, and informed patient consent were obtained for the study. Along with the Edmonton Frail Scale, a data form was used to collect data about the patient’s sociodemographics, disease status, and fall incidents. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews. RESULTS: The prevalence of severe frailty was 19.8%. Significant relationships were found between frailty and advanced age, low education, low income, continuous use of medicines, and a history of falls within the last year. CONCLUSION: Elderly individuals included in the study were categorized as “vulnerable” (Edmonton Frail Scale score of 6.84±3.83) and were at the borderline for “mild frailty” (Edmonton Frail Scale score of 7–8). The factors associated with frailty were advanced age, low education, and income level, continuous use of medicines, and the history of falls within the last year.