FRAILTY SYNDROME AND ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS IN THE ELDERLY LIVING AT HOME

Abstract

Disturbance in the nutritional status in the elderly can change anthropometric measurements. These changes on their body could associated with frailty syndrome. The aim was to assess the frailty syndrome and its association with demographic variables and anthropometric measures. Cross-sectional study with 235 elderly people living at home. Descriptive statistics applied were measures of central tendency and dispersion, with frequencies for the qualitative variables. Student’s t test was used to compare the means of sex with age, weight, height, waist circumference, waist/height ratio, body mass index and frailty and multinomial logistic regression analysis between categories of frailty and demographic and anthropometric variables. It was significant p≤0.05. There was a relationship between gender and body weight, waist circumference and the waist/height ratio; the data also showed that frailty increases with age. It was found that having a waist/height ratio ≥0.50 and a body mass index ≥27 increased the risk of frailty. The study shows that the association between frailty and anthropometric measures should be a priority in elderly care.