Falls, hospitalizations, and poor self-rated health in older people with diabetes and frailty: a secondary analysis of SABE-Colombia

Background: Diabetes and frailty, together, have been related to adverse events such as increased risk of hypoglycemia, functional decline, disability, hospital admissions, and worsening quality of life. We estimated the prevalence of diabetes and frailty and their association with hospitalization, poor self-rated health, recurrent falls, and fear of falling. Methods: Data came from the “Salud, Bienestar y Envejecimiento” (SABE) Colombia Survey 2015, a cross-sectional study of 23694 community-dwelling adults aged 60 years or older living in rural or urban areas, a representative sample from the total population. A modified version created of the frailty phenotype proposed by Fried, was used to measure frailty. Diabetes prevalence was considered by self-report. We evaluated the association between diabetes and/or frailty with hospitalization, poor self-rated health, recurrent falls and fear of falling. Results: Three thousand eight hundred seventy-three older people were analyzed, 16.2% had diabetes, were more likely to be women, younger age (≤ 69 years), lived in urban areas and had lower economic income. Geriatric syndromes, chronic illnesses, hospitalization in the last year and poor self-rated health were also significantly associated with diabetes. The prevalence of older adults having diabetes and frailty was 22.4%. Diabetes and frailty were not associated with dependent variables, but people with frailty did find a significant association with poor self-rated health, recurrent falls and fear of falling, associations that were higher than analysis with elderly with diabetes. Conclusions: Findings provide additional evidence supporting association between elderly with frailty and unfavorable outcomes independently of chronic diseases.