Association between frailty and depression among hemodialysis patients: a cross-sectional study

Frailty is consensually understood to be a clinical syndrome in which minimal stressors can lead to negative outcomes such as hospitalization, early institutionalization, falls, functional loss and death. Frailty is more prevalent among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and those on dialysis are the frailest. Depression contributes towards putting patients with CKD into the frailty cycle.

To assess frailty and its relationship with depression among patients with CKD undergoing hemodialysis.

Observational and quantitative cross-sectional study conducted in a renal therapy unit, located in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil.

This investigation took place in 2019, among 80 patients. The following instruments were applied: a sociodemographic, economic and health condition characterization and the Subjective Frailty Assessment (SFA) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9).

Among the patients, there was higher prevalence of females, individuals with a steady partner and retirees, and their mean age was 59.63 (± 15.14) years. There was high prevalence of physical frailty (73.8%) and depression (93.7%). Depression was associated with frailty, such that patients with depression were 9.8 times more likely to be frail than were patients without depression (odds ratio, OR = 9.80; 95% confidence interval, CI, 1.93-49.79).

Based on the proposed objective and the results achieved, it can be concluded that depression was associated with the presence of frailty among patients with CKD on hemodialysis.