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Updated: Nov 18, 2025
Determining the Functional Status of the Corticospinal Tract Within One Week of Stroke
Published on: February 22, 2020
Relationship between pre-stroke frailty status and short-term functional outcome in older patients with acute
Madoka Noguchi1, Hiroki Kubo1, Masashi Kanai2
1Department of Rehabilitation, Itami Kousei Neurosurgical Hospital, Itami, Japan.
Aim:
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of pre-stroke frailty status on short-term functional outcome in older patients with acute stroke.
Methods:
In this prospective longitudinal study, we assessed the pre-stroke frailty status (robust, prefrail, or frail) by the Frailty Screening Index, disease severity by the National Institutes of Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and short-term functional outcome by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at discharge from acute hospital in patients with older stroke. We considered poor functional outcome to be a mRS >2. Logistic regression analysis and mediation analysis were used to investigate the relationships among pre-stroke frailty status, disease severity, length of stay (LOS), and short-term functional outcome.
Results:
A total of 232 patients were enrolled in this study. The NIHSS and LOS were significantly different between groups (p<0.001, p = 0.01, respectively), but there was no relationship between frailty status and short-term functional outcome (p = 0.22). Based on the logistic regression analyses after adjusting for potential confounders, the NIHSS (odds ratio (OR): 1.75, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.44-2.14, p<0.001) and LOS (OR: 1.07, 95%CI: 1.03-1.11) were independently associated with a poor functional outcome. In the mediation analysis, the NIHSS (β=0.137, p<0.001) and LOS (β=0.09, p<0.004) were significant mediators between pre-stroke frailty status and poor functional outcome.
Conclusions:
The relationship between pre-stroke frailty status and short-term functional outcome was mediated by disease severity and LOS in older patients with acute stroke.
