Frailty and quality of elderly living in a context of social vulnerability

Abstract

Objetive: to evaluate the level of frailty and its relation with the quality of life of elderly people enrolled in Reference Centers of Social Care in a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Method: descriptive, correlational and quantitative approach study. An individual interview was conducted with the application of a sociodemographic characterization tool, the Edmonton Frail Scale, Whoqol-bref and the Whoqol-old, in the period between 2012 and 2016. Data were submitted to statistical analysis and correlation verified by the Kruskal-Wallis test and by the Levin and Fox tests. Results: 217 elderly peopleparticipated in the study, with anaverage age of 68.5 (±7.35) years old, married (n=91), and with one to four years of schooling (n=112). As to the level of frailty, 89 (41%) did not present frailty, 46 (21.2%) were vulnerable, and 82 (37.7%) were frail. Regarding the relationship between the frailty and the quality of life of the elderly, a negative correlation was observed, from weak to moderate magnitude, with statistical significance with all the Whoqol-bref and old domains. Conclusion: considering the relationship between the level of frailty and the quality of life scores, indicating that the more frail elderly had worse quality of life, health practices and public policies can be subsidized for prevention actions as way to eradicate, prevent and delay risk conditions.