Promoting Health and preventing dependency: identifying frailty signs among independent elderly

ABSTRACT Objective to identify frailty indicators for dependency and hospitalization in a sample of independent seniors of an elderly Center. Methods evaluation of the probability of hospitalization through an instrument composed by eight variables and functional evaluation with the use of an instrument composed of 11 tests and an interview structured to get information concerning self-referred morbidity. The statistical data were treated in a descriptive way and analyzed to the light of theoretical basis in the fields of the Gerontology and Public Health. Results From October 2005 to September 2006, 430 elderly were interviewed. A subsample of 285 subjects was submitted to the functional evaluation. Among them, 25% presented memory losses, 32.2% presented previous history of depression, 55.7% have hypertension diagnosis and 30.5% related falls in the last year. Conclusion 10% of the seniors needed urgent geriatric intervention, 45% presented important frailty indicators needing a comprehensive assessment and 28% would benefit of rehabilitation measures in order to prevent functional incapacity.