Association of functional impairment and frailty with the frequency of hospitalizations between sexes in a population aged 60+ years

Introduction: To determine whether the need for hospitalization is more frequent in patients with both frailty and functional dependence compared to patients with only frailty or functional dependence. We also performed an analysis stratified by sex.Material and methods: An observational, analytical, retrospective cohort study that analyzed a secondary database of a study including a population of 1896 older adults cared for by the Geriatric Service of the “Naval Medical Center” of Peru from 2010 to 2015. The analysis of the data was done using the program STATA ver- sion 15.0.Results: There was a statistically significant association between age (p = 0.001), education (p = 0.003), number of comorbidities (p = 0.01), frailty (p = 0.001), coexistence between frailty and functional dependence (p = 0.001) and the number of hospitalizations. The mean number of hospitalization days was greater among the older adults with both frailty and functional dependence compared to those who were only frail or function- ally dependent (2.6 ±1.6 vs. 2.3 ±1.5 vs. 0.7 ±0.7; p = 0.001, respectively). This association was maintained in women and men.Conclusions: The coexistence of functional dependence and frailty is associated with a greater number of hospitalizations in older male and female adults. This is relevant because frailty can be avoided by implement- ing promotional and preventive interventions of active aging and at the same time, it is potentially reversible with an early detection and adequate measures such as physical activity, diet, and cognitive training.