Frailty syndrome in the community-dwelling elderly with osteoarthritis

Objective: To characterize and compare community-dwelling elderly with knee and/or hip osteoarthritis (OA), focusing on the frailty syndrome. Method: Cross-sectional study of the elderly with knee and/or hip OA, using a subsample from the study of frailty in the Brazilian elderly (FIBRA), assessing the following: sociodemographic characteristics, comorbidity, medications, depression, anthropomorphic data, falls, pain, stiffness, physical function, and frailty. The subjective assessment of health was also performed. Results: The final sample comprised 58 elderly (mean age, 74 5.5 years) as follows: 17 (29.31%) non-frail, 28 (48.28%) pre-frail, and 13 (22.41%) frail. The frail elderly received more medications than the non-frail ones (7.00 +/- 2.00 and 4.00 +/- 2.00, respectively; P = 0.001). The mean Body Mass Index was lower in the non-frail elderly as compared with those of the pre-frail and frail ones (27.00 +/- 4.50 kg/m(2), 30.00 +/- 4.00 kg/m(2), and 34.00 +/- 8.00 kg/m(2), respectively; P = 0.018). Depression was more prevalent in the frail group. Compared to the previous year, there was a difference in the health status of the groups as follows: 64.3% of the pre-frail elderly and 46.2% of the frail ones believed their health deteriorated, and 52.9% of the non-frail elderly considered that their health status remained unchanged (P = 0.016). When comparing the current physical activity levels with those of the previous year, the pre-frail and frail elderly reported a worsening (P = 0.010). Regarding physical function and fall-related self-efficacy, the frail elderly were worse than the others (P = 0.023 and 0.017, respectively). There were no significant differences between the groups for the remaining items analyzed. Conclusion: The elderly with OA and frailty use more medications, are more obese and depressed, have a poorer perception of their own health and of their level of activity as compared with that of the previous year, have a worse fall-related self-efficacy, and worse physical function.