Search

Incidence and survival of breast cancer, the most common cancer among women, have been increasing, leaving survivors at risk of aging-related health conditions. In this matched cohort study, we examined frailty risk with the Hospital Frailty Risk Score among breast cancer survivors (n  = 34,900) and age-matched comparison subjects (n  = 290,063). Women born in 1935–1975, registered in the Swedish Total Population Register (1991–2015), were eligible for inclusion. Survivors had a first breast cancer diagnosis in 1991–2005 and survived ≥5 years after initial diagnosis. Death date was determined by linkage to the National Cause of Death Registry (through 2015). Cancer survivorship was weakly associated with frailty (subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR) = 1.04, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.00, 1.07). In age-stratified models, those diagnosed at younger ages (<50 years) had higher risk of frailty (SHR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.24) than those diagnosed at ages 50–65 (SHR = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.07) or >65 (SHR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.17) years. Additionally, there was increased risk of frailty for diagnoses in 2000 or later (SHR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.21) compared with before 2000 (SHR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.93, 1.17). This supports work from smaller samples showing that breast cancer survivors have increased frailty risk, particularly when diagnosed at younger ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: The First-time Injurious Fall (FIF) screening tool was created to identify fall risk in community-living older men and women, who may be targets for primary preventive interventions. The FIF tool consists of 3 self-reported questions and 1 physical test (1-leg standing balance). The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive ability of the FIF tool and a modified FIF tool (in which 1-leg standing is replaced by self-reported balance) for first-time injurious falls. Methods: A cohort of 1194 community-living people 60 years and older from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNAC-K), Sweden, was followed longitudinally for 5 years. Data on injurious falls were collected from registered data and were defined as receipt of care after a fall. The predictive ability of the FIF tool and the m-FIF tool was explored using Harrell's C statistic, stratified by sex. Results and Discussion: The injurious fall rate per 1000 person-years was 54.9 (95% CI: 47.22-63.78) for women and 36.3 (95% CI: 28.84-45.78) for men. The predictive ability for women and men according to Harrell's C statistic was 0.70 and 0.71 for the FIF tool and the m-FIF tool. The predictive ability was 0.70 and 0.69 for 1-leg standing, and 0.65 and 0.60 for self-reported balance problems. Conclusions: The m-FIF tool presented similar predictive ability as the FIF tool regarding first-time injurious falls. This finding could extend the usefulness of the tool to other settings, such as to electronic health (eHealth). A quickly and easily administered screening tool can help physical therapists to identify people with a high risk of falling who may need to undergo a more comprehensive fall risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose -- Waiting time to surgery is a modifiable risk factor in hip fracture surgery. However, there is no consensus regarding the acceptable duration of waiting time. We used the Swedish Hip Fracture Register RIKSHÖFT and 3 administrative registers to explore the association between time to surgery and adverse outcomes after discharge. Patients and methods -- 63,998 patients ≥ 65 years, admitted to a hospital between January 1, 2012, and August 31, 2017 were included. Time to surgery was divided into < 12, 12-24, and > 24 hours. Diagnoses investigated were atrial fibrillation/flutter (AF), congestive heart failure (CHF), pneumonia, and "acute ischemia" (a combination of stroke/ intracranial bleeding, myocardial infarction, and acute kidney injury). Crude and adjusted survival analyses were performed. Time spent in hospital following the initial hospitalization was described for the 3 groups. Results -- Waiting > 24 hours was associated with an increased risk of AF (HR 1.4, 95%CI 1.2-1.6), CHF (HR 1.3, CI 1.1-1.4) and "acute ischemia" (HR 1.2, CI 1.01-1.3). However, stratifying for ASA grade revealed that these associations were present only in patients with ASA 3-4. There was no association between waiting time and pneumonia after the initial hospitalization (HR 1.1, CI 0.97-1.2), but one was found with pneumonia during hospital stay OR 1.2 (CI 1.1-1.4). Time in hospital after the initial hospitalization was similar over the waiting time groups. Conclusion -- The associations between waiting > 24 hours for hip fracture surgery and AF, CHF, and acute ischemia suggest that shorter waiting time may reduce adverse outcomes for the sicker patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) has been suggested to be associated with mortality in hip fracture patients, to the same extent as more expensive and time-consuming tools. However, even CCI might be too time-consuming in a clinical setting. Aim: To investigate whether the American Society of Anaesthesiologists score (ASA score), a simple grading from the anaesthesiologist's examination, is comparable with CCI in the association with 1-year mortality after a hip fracture. Methods: The study population was patients 60 + years registered in the Swedish Hip Fracture Registry with a first-time hip fracture between 1997 and 2017 (N = 165,596). The outcome was 1-year mortality, and the exposures were ASA score and CCI. The association between comorbidity and mortality was described with Kaplan–Meier curves and analyzed with Cox proportional hazards models. Results: The Kaplan–Meier curves showed a stepwise increase in mortality for increasing values of both ASA and CCI. The Hazard Ratios (HRs) for the highest ASA (4–5) were 3.8 (95% Confidence Interval 3.5–4.2) for women and 3.2 (2.8–3.6) for men in the fully adjusted models. Adjusted HRs for the highest CCI (4 +) were 3.6 (3.3–3.9) for women and 2.5 (2.3–2.7) for men. Reference was the lowest score value for both tools. The correlation between the tools was moderate. Conclusions: Both ASA and CCI show a similar stepwise association with 1-year mortality in hip fracture patients, despite measuring different factors and capturing different individuals at risk. Since the ASA score is already accessible for health care staff, it might be preferable to aid in prioritizing vulnerable hip fracture patients at risk of adverse outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES To identify sex‐specific associations between risk factors and injurious falls over the short (<4 years) and long (4–10 years) term. DESIGN Longitudinal cohort study between 2001 and 2011. SETTING Swedish National Study on Aging and Care, Kungsholmen, Sweden. PARTICIPANTS Community‐dwelling adults aged 60 and older (N = 3,112). MEASUREMENTS An injurious fall was defined as a fall that required inpatient or outpatient care. Information was collected on participant and exposure characteristics using structured interviews, clinical examinations, and physical function tests at baseline. RESULTS: The multivariate model showed that, in the short term, living alone (hazard ratio (HR)=1.83, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.13–2.96), dependency in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) (HR=2.59, 95% CI=1.73–3.87), and previous falls (HR=1.71, 95% CI=1.08–2.72) were independently associated with injurious falls in women. Low systolic blood pressure (HR=1.96, 95% CI=1.04–3.71), impaired chair stands (HR=3.00, 95% CI=1.52–5.93), and previous falls (HR=2.81, 95% CI=1.32–5.97) were associated with injurious falls in men. Long‐term risk factors were underweight (HR=2.03, 95% CI=1.40–2.95), cognitive impairment (HR=1.49, 95% CI=1.08–2.06), fall‐risk increasing drugs (HR=1.67, 95% CI=1.27–2.20 for ≥2 drugs), and IADL dependency (HR=1.58, 95% CI=1.32–5.97) for women and smoking (HR=1.71, 95% CI=1.03–2.84), heart disease (HR=2.20, 95% CI=1.5–3.24), impaired balance (HR=1.68, 95% CI=1.08–2.62), and a previous fall (HR=3.61, 95% CI=1.98–6.61) for men. CONCLUSION: Men and women have different fall risk profiles, and these differences should be considered when developing preventive strategies. Some risk factors were more strongly predictive of injurious falls over shorter than longer periods and vice versa, suggesting that it may be possible to identify older men and women at short‐ and long‐term risk of injurious falls. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:246–253, 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The First-time Injurious Fall (FIF) screening tool was created to identify fall risk in community-living older adults who may benefit from primary preventive interventions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive performance of the FIF tool in 2 cohorts of older adults. Longitudinal cohort study. The Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Skåne (SNAC-S) and Blekinge (SNAC-B), Sweden. Community-living people aged ≥60 years (n = 2766). Nurses and physicians collected data in the 2 cohorts through interviews and testing. Data on injurious falls were collected from register data and were defined as receipt of care after a fall. The FIF tool, consisting of 3 questions and 1 balance test, was examined in relation to injurious falls for up to 5 years of follow-up using Cox proportional hazards models. The predictive performance of the FIF tool was further explored using Harrell C statistic and Youden cut-off for sensitivity and specificity. The hazard ratios (HRs) of an injurious fall in the high-risk group for women and men were 3.80 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.53, 5.73) and 5.10 (95% CI 2.57, 10.12) in SNAC-S and 4.45 (95% CI 1.86, 10.61) and 32.58 (95% CI 4.30, 247.05) in SNAC-B compared with those in the low risk group. The sensitivity and specificity of the Youden cut-off point (3 or higher for high-risk) were 0.64 and 0.69 for women and 0.68 and 0.69 for men in SNAC-S, and 0.64 and 0.74 for women and 0.94 and 0.68 for men in SNAC-B. The predictive values (Harrell C statistic) for the scores for women and men were 0.73 and 0.74 in SNAC-S and 0.72 and 0.89 in SNAC-B. Our results suggest that the FIF tool is a valid tool to use for prediction of first-time injurious falls in community-living older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies showed that peak expiratory flow (PEF) is associated with health-related outcomes in advanced age, but the extent to which it may be related to falls risk remains unclear. We aimed to detect the association between PEF and injurious falls in older adults and to explore the role of cognitive and physical deficits in this association. Prospective study with a 6-year follow-up. The study involves 2234 community-dwelling older adults with no history of pulmonary disease. For each study participant, we assessed the PEF at baseline, expressed as standardized residual (SR) percentile and derived from the normalization of residuals between the measured and predicted PEF values (based on individual age, sex, and body height); incident injurious falls over 6 years, from Hospital Discharge Diagnosis; and physical and cognitive functioning at the baseline and at 3- and 6-year follow-ups by evaluating walking speed, balance, chair stand, and Mini-Mental State Examination, respectively. Over the follow-up, 232 individuals experienced injurious falls. Cox models indicated 7% higher risk of falls per each 10th reduction in PEF SR-percentile. The risk of injurious falls increased by more than twice for those who had PEF SR-percentile <10th as for values of 80th-100th (hazard ratio = 2.31, 95% confidence interval: 1.41-3.76). Physical deficits mediated 63% of the total effect of PEF on falls risk. Our findings suggest that low PEF is associated with higher risk of injurious falls in older adults, and most of this association is explained by balance or muscular strength deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the association between nutritional status, defined on the basis of a multidimensional evaluation, and body mass index (BMI) with the risk of falls and recurrent falls in community-dwelling older people. Systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Community-dwelling older adults. A systematic literature review was conducted on prospective studies identified through electronic and hand searches until October 2017. A random effects meta-analysis was used to evaluate the relative risk (RR) of experiencing falls and recurrent falls (≥2 falls within at least 6 months) on the basis of nutritional status, defined by multidimensional scores. A random effects dose-response meta-analysis was used to evaluate the association between BMI and the risk of falls and recurrent falls. People who were malnourished or those at risk for malnutrition had a pooled 45% higher risk of experiencing at least 1 fall than were those well-nourished (9510 subjects). Increased falls risk was observed in subjects malnourished versus well-nourished [RR 1.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.18-2.28; 3 studies, 8379 subjects], whereas no substantial results were observed for risk of recurrent falls. A U-shaped association was detected between BMI and the risk for falls (P <.001), with the nadir between 24.5 and 30 (144,934 subjects). Taking a BMI of 23.5 as reference, the pooled RR of falling ranged between 1.09 (95% CI 1.04-1.15) for a BMI of 17, to 1.07 (95% CI 0.92-1.24) for a BMI of 37.5. No associations were observed between BMI and recurrent falls (120,185 subjects). The results of our work suggest therefore that nutritional status and BMI should be evaluated when assessing the risk for falls in older age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]