Frailty syndrome in dialysis patients: one dialysis center study

Aim of the study. To analyze the rate of frailty syndrome among chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients (pts.) and it's association with outcomes. Objectives: 1. To evaluate the rate of frailty in chronic HD pts. 2. To assess relation of frailty to hospitalisation and mortality in chronic HD pts. Methods. A retrospective analysis of clinical data (evaluation of the Edmonton Frail Scale) was performed. Results. In total, 60 HD pts. (70% male and 30% female) participated in our study. The mean age of pts. was 60.1 ± 13.6 years and the median duration of HD was 69 mo (52.5-90). Rate of frailty was 46.7% (n = 28) Older age directly correlated with frailty ( p = 0.01 R = 0.305 ) . The hospitalization rate > 2 times per year directly correlated with the total score of the Edmonton Frail Scale higher results were observed in comparison with non-hospitalized pts. (6 (5-9) vs 5 (3-6); P = 0.037 ) During follow-up period of 45 mo, 18 (30%) patients died, more than a half of them (n = 10; 55.6%) had frailty, but there was no significant correlation between frailty and mortality (p > 0.05) . Conclusions. 1. Rate of frailty prevalence was 46.7% of patients: slight - 31.7%, moderate - 8.3% and severe 6.7%. 2. The significant direct correlation between higher total frailty score and higher hospitalisation rate was found (p = 0.037) but there was no association between frailty and mortality (p = 0.534) .