Frailty Screening in Geriatric Trauma: A Pilot Feasibility Study

Frailty in older adult trauma patients is associated with increased complications and worsened outcomes. Frailty screening can help guide care. Yet, trauma center assessment of frailty is relatively new, can be challenging to implement, and is not yet standard practice.

The purpose of this pilot feasibility study is to assess the impact of implementing frailty screening for older adult trauma patients and to evaluate the effect of frailty screening on palliative care consultation, inhospital complications, hospital length of stay, and discharge disposition.

We conducted a 3-month (July 2019 to September 2019) prospective observational pilot feasibility study of geriatric trauma patients 65 years and older presenting to a Level I trauma center. The Trauma-Specific Frailty Index score was completed within 24 hr of patient admission. Inferential statistics were used to assess the relationships.

Fifty subjects were included. Between frail and nonfrail patient groups, there was no significant correlation between mean Trauma-Specific Frailty Index score and palliative care consultation, χ2(1,N=50) = 2.32, p = .149; inpatient complications, χ2(1,N=50) = 0.000, p = 1.000; hospital length of stay, t(48) = 0.95, p = .345; or discharge disposition (receiver operating characteristic curve, p = .337). There was a significant negative relationship between Trauma-Specific Frailty Index Scores and Injury Severity Scores, t(15) = 2.33, p = .035.

This pilot study demonstrates that frailty screening can be implemented to help guide older adult trauma care but is not without challenges. Barriers to frailty screening should be addressed to ensure trauma team engagement. Additional research with a larger sample size is warranted to explore the benefits of frailty screening in guiding care.