Changes of a frailty index based on common blood and urine tests during a hospital stay on geriatric wards predict 6-month and 1-year mortality in older people.

Background: We aimed to evaluate the abilities of a 21-item frailty index based on laboratory blood and urine tests (FI-Lab21) assessed at different points in time, ie, at admission to hospital (FI-Lab21) and before discharge from hospital (FI-Lab21), and the change of the FI-Lab21 during the hospital stay to predict 6-month and 1-year mortality in hospitalized geriatric patients.

Methods: Five hundred hospitalized geriatric patients aged ≥65 years were included in this analysis. Follow-up data were acquired after a period of 6 months and 1 year.

Results: The FI-Lab21 and FI-Lab21 scores were 0.33±0.15 and 0.31±0.14, respectively (<0.001). The FI-Lab21 and FI-Lab21 both predicted 6-month and 1-year mortality (areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves: 0.72, 0.72, 0.77, and 0.75, respectively, all <0.001). The predictive abilities for 6-month and 1-year mortality of the FI-Lab21 were inferior compared with those of the FI-Lab21 (all <0.05). Patients with a reduction in or stable FI-Lab21 score during the hospital stay revealed lower 6-month and 1-year mortality rates compared with the persons whose FI-Lab21 score increased during the hospital stay (all <0.05). After adjustment for age, sex, and FI-Lab21, each 1% decrease in the FI-Lab21 during the hospital stay was associated with a decrease in 6-month and 1-year mortality of 5.9% and 5.3% (both <0.001), respectively.

Conclusion: The FI-Lab21 assessed at admission or discharge and the changes of the FI-Lab21 during the hospital stay emerged as interesting and feasible approaches to stratify mortality risk in hospitalized geriatric patients.