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Background: A comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) of elderly patients is useful for detecting the patients' vulnerabilities. Exercise and early rehabilitation, nutritional intervention, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), standardized medication guidance and patient education can, separately, improve and even reverse the physical frailty status. However, the effect of combining a CGA and multi-disciplinary management on frailty in elderly patients remains unclear. The present study assessed the effects of a CGA and multi-disciplinary management on elderly patients with frailty in China.Methods: In this study, 320 inpatients with frailty ≥70 years old will be randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group. The intervention group will be given routine management, a CGA and multi-disciplinary management involving rehabilitation exercise, diet adjustment, multi-drug evaluation, acupoint massage in TCM and patient education for 12 months, and the control group will be followed up with routine management for basic diseases. The primary outcomes are the Fried phenotype and short physical performance battery (SPPB). The secondary outcomes are the clinical frailty scale (CFS), non-elective hospital readmission, basic activities of daily living (BADL), 5­level european quality of life 5 dimensions index (EQ-5D), nutrition risk screening-2002 (NRS-2002), medical insurance expenses, fall events and all-cause mortality. In addition, a cost-effectiveness study will be carried out. Discussion: This paper outlines the protocol for a randomized, single-blind, parallel multi-center clinical study. This protocol, if beneficial, will demonstrate the interaction of various intervention strategies, will help improve elderly frailty patients, and will be useful for clinicians, nurses, policymakers, public health authorities and the general population.Trial registration: Chinese Clinical Trials Register, ChiCTR1900022623. Registered on 19 April 2019, http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=38141.

Background: No prior studies have assessed the role of cognitive impairment and physical frailty in elderly inpatients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to assess the utility of a combination developed using the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) + clock drawing test (CDT) and the Fried phenotype for predicting non-elective hospital readmission or death within 6-month in elderly inpatients with CVD. Methods : A single center prospective cohort was conducted between September 2018 and February 2019. Inpatients aged 65 years or older were recruited. All enrolled patients received a comprehensive geriatric assessment during hospitalization. The Kaplan-Meier curves were used to estimate the cumulative incidence of events. The multivariate Cox regression model was used to analyze the association between frailty and cognitive status and the non-elective hospital readmission or death. Results : A total of 542 patients were included; and a total of 113 patients (20.9%) died or were readmitted at 6-month. Overall 20% screened positive for cognitive impairment, including 8% were cognitive impairment combined with physical frailty, which were more older, more common in women and non-married group, had a lower education and a higher risk of malnutrition. Frail participants with normal (hazard ratio [HR]:1.73, 95% confidence intervals [CI]:1.06-2.82, P=0.028) and impaired cognition (HR:2.50, 95% CI:1.27-4.91, P=0.008) had a higher risk of non-elective hospital readmission or death than robust patients, after adjustment for age, sex, education level, marital status, the presence of diabetes mellitus, heart failure, and previous stroke. Conclusions : The presence of physical frailty and cognitive frailty were powerful predictors of non-elective hospital readmission or death in elderly inpatients with CVD, and taking cognitive impairment into account in the frailty model may allow better prediction of adverse outcomes of frailty in the short time. Trial registration: ChiCTR1800017204; date of registration: 07/18/2018.