Investigating the Relationship Between Frailty and Quality of Life in Patients with Heart Failure and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) (FRAIL Study)
Authors' conclusion
A large proportion of CKD-HF patients are frail, regardless of disease severity, and more susceptible to significantly poorer QoL across physical and social domains.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with both CKD and heart failure (HF) (eGFR <60 mL/min/1.732) at a tertiary care cardiorenal clinic103 completed questionnaires
- Participants
- 105 patients
- Exposure
- Frail vs non-frail
- Frailn = 51
- Outcome
- Association between frailty and QoL (SF-36)
Methodological detailssingle tertiary care cardiorenal clinic, Surveys between 14 July 2022 and 31 March 2023
- Single tertiary care cardiorenal clinic
- Surveys between 14 July 2022 and 31 March 2023
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Frailty prevalence and QoL (SF-36) by frailty
Frail
49.5%
51 of 51
- Frail patients reported poorer physical functioning
- P < 0.001
- Frail patients reported poorer general health
- P < 0.001
- Frail patients reported poorer bodily pain
- P = 0.004
- Frail patients reported poorer social functioning
- P < 0.001
- Frail patients reported poorer energy levels
- P < 0.001
- No significant difference in emotional wellbeing
- P = 0.058
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Clinical factors associated with frailty
- Frailty related to sex
- P = 0.021
- Frailty related to medication count
- P = 0.007
- Frailty not related to eGFR
- P = 0.437
- Frailty not related to EF
- P = 0.911
Healthcare priority
- Better quality of life (QoL) as healthcare priority
- 51.5%
- Longer survival as healthcare priority
- 23.3%
- Avoiding hospital admissions as healthcare priority
- 22.3%
- Consistent across frail and non-frail groups
Original publication
Investigating the Relationship Between Frailty and Quality of Life in Patients with Heart Failure and CKD (FRAIL Study). ESC Heart Fail. Published 6 February 2024. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it