The availability of care among frail older adults: impacts on care management in a crisis context - the Fibra Study

• Main Authors: Juliana Lustosa Torres (Author), Lygia Paccini Lustosa (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Instituto de Estudos em Saúde Coletiva da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 2024-07-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 1414-462X; 10.1590/1414-462x202432010201
• Keywords: frailty; long-term care; social environment; social support; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Cadernos de Saúde Coletiva, Vol 32, Iss 1 (2024)

Abstract Background: In Brazil, most of the care provided is informal, but its availability remains relatively little explored in the context of frailty. Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the availability of care among older adults from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and its association with frailty. Method: This is a cross-sectional study based on 598 older adults from the Fibra-BH Study (2008/09). Frailty was defined using the 5-item of physical frailty phenotype. The availability of care included subjective and objective measures. Adjusting variables were age, sex, education, and self-rated health. Statistical analyses were based on a Poisson regression model with a robust error variance. Results: The prevalence of frailty was 11.4% and pre-frailty was 56.4%. The availability of care was slightly lower among frail than pre-frail and non-frail, where 17% lived alone, 14% had nobody to rely on, and 13% were childless. An association was observed between a lack of availability of care and frailty only among men, regarding living alone and having nobody to rely on. Conclusion: Only a small part of older adults have a lack of availability of care, but it is slightly higher among frail older adults. Focus on male older adults with a lack of availability of care is necessary due to a higher probability of having frailty or pre-frailty.