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Investigators at Mass Common Brigham have developed a instrument that may establish older adults at elevated threat of emergency well being care wants, rehospitalization or demise. The instrument measured affected person frailty, an aging-related syndrome, by integrating the well being information of greater than 500,000 people collected throughout a number of hospitals at Mass Common Brigham.
These findings, printed within the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, might assist clinicians take care of high-risk sufferers even with out the provision of complete major care information.
“Frailty is associated with higher risk of falls, hospitalization and potentially preventable health care system costs,” stated co-first writer Bharati Kochar, MD, MS, of the Gastroenterology Unit and the Mongan Institute Heart for Growing older and Severe Sickness at Massachusetts Common Hospital, a founding member of the Mass Common Brigham well being care system.
“But it can be challenging to measure frailty using routinely collected data in electronic health records (EHRs). Patients often receive care across multiple health care systems, which can lead to incomplete information on aging-related health deficits. Our study demonstrates we can overcome these challenges to help identify patients at risk for adverse health outcomes.”
On this research, researchers examined EHR knowledge from sufferers who obtained care at hospitals inside the Mass Common Brigham system. The evaluation included sufferers aged 60 and above, who had skilled one or two outpatient visits inside a two- or three-year interval previous to 2017, in addition to a sub-cohort that obtained major care inside the similar time window.
The investigators developed a frailty index that categorised sufferers as sturdy, pre-frail, frail or very frail based mostly on the presence or absence of 31 age-related well being deficits of their EHR knowledge.
Amongst 518,449 sufferers with a imply age of 71.94 years, the analysis group recognized 72.9% as sturdy, 15.8% as pre-frail, 6.9% as frail and a pair of.8% as very frail. In comparison with sturdy people, very frail people had elevated charges of demise and hospital readmission inside a 90-day window. Charges of worse outcomes elevated from pre-frail to very frail people, relative to sturdy people.
“Our study shows that frailty can be measured in EHRs, even when data is incomplete,” stated senior writer Ariela R. Orkaby, MD, MPH, of the Division of Growing older at Brigham and Ladies’s Hospital.
“For hospitals caring for an older and sicker population, an automated frailty tool, such as the Mass General Brigham-Electronic Frailty Index, is a rapid way to identify patients at highest risk of an adverse health outcome. We hope that this tool will help improve care of all older adults entering the health care system.”
The authors be aware that whereas the work was made doable via cross-system collaboration at Mass Common Brigham, the instrument might additionally assist different well being techniques establish older adults vulnerable to outcomes that adversely impression total well being and well-being.
Extra info:
Kochar B et al. Software of an digital frailty index to establish excessive threat older adults utilizing digital well being report knowledge, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (2025). DOI: 10.1111/jgs.19389
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New frailty measurement instrument might assist establish weak older adults (2025, February 21)
retrieved 22 February 2025
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