None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Research focusing on frailty in residential aged care services (RACS) is sparse. A better understanding of the relationship between frailty progression, residents’ use of life space and their perspectives on quality of care, combined with residents’ health data will help to better determine the progression of frailty, its associated health outcomes and costs, and assist in developing interventions that could improve the health circumstances of residential aged care residents in the long term. The aims of this study are: 1. To confirm the validity of the FRAIL-AC in comparison to the FRAIL-NH and 66-Item FI 2. To describe the trajectory of frailty and its relationship with factors such as malnutrition, mobility, qualify of life, quality of care, dementia, sleep, activities of daily living, strength and pain 3. To investigate the association between frailty, hospitalisation, emergency department presentations and mortality via data linkage Hypothesis: We have recently investigated the frailty trajectory of older people living in the community and have demonstrated that frailty levels are dynamic with improvement and stability possible. Through this study, we aim to investigate if similar findings are present within RACS. We hypothesise that frailty and its trajectory may be associated with characteristics of the care provided in RACS to older adults.
Interventions
The FIRST Study is a 3 year prospective cohort study involving Resthaven Inc. and all 12 of its facilities including approximately 756 residential aged care residents living in South Australia.
The research involves the collection of a range of health data on medical status and diagnoses, malnutrition, mobility, qualify of life, quality of care, dementia, sleep, activities of daily living, strength and pain. This information will be collected at baseline and repeated 1 year later for trajectory
The FIRST Study is a 3 year prospective cohort study involving Resthaven Inc. and all 12 of its facilities including approximately 756 residential aged care residents living in South Australia. The research involves the collection of a range of health data on medical status and diagnoses, malnutrition, mobility, qualify of life, quality of care, dementia, sleep, activities of daily living, strength and pain. This information will be collected at baseline and repeated 1 year later for trajectory analysis. Study nurses hired by Resthaven Inc. will be trained by the research team to obtain informed consent and undertake the data collection for this study. The FIRST Study will also be used to validate a new frailty screening tool, the FRAIL-AC, which was developed specifically for its use in residential aged care. The FRAIL-AC is a 19 item screening tool, which is derivable from 3 validated instruments used in this study (Dementia Severity Rating Scale, Katz Activities of Daily Living Scale and the Quality Of Life Alzheimer’s Dementia Scale). We aim to confirm the predictive validity of this newly developed tool in this newly recruited cohort. In addition, public health data containing medical information about mortality, hospital visits, treatment and health conditions, and the use of ambulance services will be collected at year 1, 2 and 3 using data linkage undertaking by SA NT DataLink. Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data will be sought from the Department of Human Services. This research will help to better determine the prevalence and progression of frailty in residential aged care, its associated health outcomes and health care costs.
Sponsors
University of Adelaide
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
All permanent (i.e. respite or transition care program excluded) residents of the aged care facilities who are living in the facility for at least 8 weeks.
Exclusion criteria
Those deemed by clinical staff to be medically unstable (e.g. experiencing delirium) or estimated by facility staff to have less than 3 months to live. Residents where the Manager Residential Services deems it inappropriate. Those not fluent in English or who have difficulty understanding English and where staff members or interpreters are not available to translate.
Outcome results
None listed