Is There a Correlation Between Frailty, Comorbidities, And Poorer Outcomes, Including Mortality, During Hospitalisation?

Background: Frailty is commonly described as a syndrome associated with the ageing process, where there is a significant decline in physiological function and a heightened susceptibility to negative health outcomes. Elderly patients who are frail often experience a higher level of symptoms such as weakness and fatigue, have more complex medical conditions, and have a reduced ability to tolerate medical and surgical treatments. Enhancing understanding of frailty and its related hazards for unfavourable health consequences can enhance the provision of care for this highly susceptible group of patients. The burden of comorbidity is a term used to describe the combined presence of multiple illnesses or diseases. It is also used to indicate the overall impact of these conditions, which includes both physiological and psychological dysfunctions. Aims: The objective of this study is to investigate the statistical significance of two factors, namely the frailty of admitted patients as evaluated by geriatricians using the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), and the burden of comorbidities in patients as assessed by the Age Adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (AACCP), on various negative outcomes of interest. These outcomes include longer than expected hospital stays, the need for oxygen therapy, transfer to advanced care departments, and the occurrence of hemodynamic, organ, or electrolyte dysfunctions. Methods: This study will be conducted at the King Hussein Medical Centre at the Royal Medical Services in Amman, Jordan. It will focus on medically admitted patients in the medical departments. The study will be a retrospective observational design and will cover the period from 2003 to May 2024. This study will include patients who have known frailty and comorbidity scoring at the time of admission. Patients who were admitted for observation or had admission durations of less than 2 days will be excluded from our study. We will investigate both the GFS and AACCI for their regression associations with the likelihood of experiencing poorer outcomes during the admission period. In this study, we utilised receiver operating characteristic, sensitivity analyses, and binary logistic regression test for statistical analysis. The Chi-square test will be employed to assess the distribution rates and the unadjusted estimated risk between the group with better outcomes and the group with poorer outcomes.