Fragilidade e desempenho cognitivo em idosos clientes de uma operadora de saúde da zona norte da cidade do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Some authors understand that cognitive performance is a predictor of frailty. However, consistent studies show frailty as a predictor of cognitive decline. This study also considers the relationship between frailty and cognitive performance in this regard. There are still few studies that evaluated this association in international literature and have not identified any studies conducted in Brazil or in Latin America, which has investigated. The objectives of the study were to investigate the association between frailty syndrome and cognitive performance in older adults, and the effect of schooling and age in this association. Data used were from Phase 1 of the "Estudo da Fragilidade em Idosos Brasileiros" (Rede FIBRA - Fragilidade em Idosos Brasileiros), relating to customers of a private health provider, with 65 years and older living in the northern of Rio de Janeiro city. The final study population was 737 elderly. Cognitive performance was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). We considered frail individuals who exhibited three or more of the following: unintentional weight loss (more than 4.5 kg in the last year); feeling self-reported exhaustion, low grip strength (subject in the first quintile), low physical activity level (subject in the first quintile of Minnesota), slowness (subject in the first quintile). Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, social support, medical conditions and functional capacity were also collected. The cognitive performance (MMSE) and the frailty were treated as ichotomous variables. We evaluated the age and schooling as effect modifiers on the association between frailty and low cognitive performance. The association between frailty and cognitive performance was evaluated by multivariate logistic regression. The age variable was an effect modifier in the association between frailty and cognitive performance, x² (5) = 806.97, p <0.0001. The same hasn t happened with schooling. The frail subjects had a higher prevalence of low cognitive performance, compared to not frail or prefrail, in the three strata (65 to 74 years; 75 to 84 years, >_ 85 years), p<0.001. The association between frailty and low cognitive performance was found only in patients aged 75 years and older, crude OR=2.68 (95% CI 1.29 - 5.53) for aged 75 to 84 and crude OR=6,39 (95% CI 1.82 - 22.42) for 85 years and older. After adjusting for medical conditions, functional ability and the socioeconomic and demographic variables, the association between frailty and low cognitive performance remained in these strata, OR adj = 2,78 (95% CI 1,23 - 6,27) for 75 to 84 years and OR adj = 15,62 (95% CI 2,20 110,99) for 85 years and older. Frailty syndrome is associated with low cognitive performance in older adults. Age proved to be an effect modifier in this association. The oldest patients showed a more significant association between the two phenomena.