The relationship between frailty and Patient-Reported Outcomes in elderly patients with stable asthma

Introduction: Asthma in the elderly has higher morbidity and mortality. Frailty is clinically recognized as a state of increased vulnerability resulting from aging-associated decline in reserve and function across multiple physiologic systems. There is limited information regarding health-related quality of life and frailty in this age group. Aim: To explore the relationship between frailty status assessed by the Kihon Checklist and Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) in elderly asthmatics. Methods: We examined 69 consecutive asthmatics (73.4 ± 6.1 years). The Kihon Checklist questionnaire is used as a screening tool for identifying frail individuals. The participants completed pulmonary function tests and the following PROs: the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ), the Asthma Control Test (ACT), the Hyland Scale, the Dyspnea-12 (D-12) and the Adherence Starts with Knowledge-20 (ASK-20). Results: According to total score of the Kihon Checklist, 38 (55.1%), 21 (30.4%), 10 (14.5%) subjects were classified as robust, prefrail and frail. VC(L), FVC(L), FEV1(L), TLC(L), RV/TLC(%) and DLCO(% pred) were weakly correlated with the total Kihon Checklist score (absolute RS Conclusions: Frailty status assessed by the Kihon Checklist seems to be more closely associated with PROs than lung functions in stable asthmatics.