Clinical Determinants of Frailty in End-stage Renal Disease

This cross-sectional analytical study was carried out to determine the frequency of frailty in patients on haemodialysis and to identify predictive clinical parameters. Patients were selected using convenience sampling. Exclusion criteria included acute kidney injury, non-compliance to hemodialysis, limited physical mobility due to cerebrovascular or rheumatological diseases, acute infections and unwillingness. Frailty was assessed using a short physical performance battery (SPPB). Handgrip strength and triceps skin fold thickness were also measured. There were 79 patients enrolled in the study with mean age of 51.86± 14.85 years, including 44 (55.70%) males. The median SPPB score was 8 (4-11). Frailty was observed in 51 (64.56%) patients. SPPB score had significant correlation with handgrip strength (R2= 0.309; p<0.001) and triceps skin fold thickness (R2= 0.060; p=0.030). On univariate analysis, increasing age, female gender, triceps skin fold thickness and hand grip strength were predictive of frailty. However, only increasing age (p<0.001) was predictive of frailty in multivariate analysis. Key Words: Haemodialysis, Physical performance, Renal replacement therapy.