Impact of a nursing intervention on frailty in people aged 65–75 years in primary care. A pilot clinical trial

Abstract

Objective

To analyse whether an intervention carried out by primary care nurses modifies the degree of frailty in people between 65 and 75 years of age.

Methods

Randomised, single-centre, open-label pilot study. The sample consisted of 24 patients of whom 12 were randomised to the intervention group (IG) and 12 to the control group (CG). Patients included in the IG received a nursing intervention for the management of frailty while the CG received a conventional nursing intervention not specific for the management of frailty. Both interventions were performed in a primary care clinic during a 12–15-week follow-up period. Validated lifestyle and frailty questionnaires were administered and biomedical and anthropometric data were recorded. Data were statistically treated as significant at P < .05.

Results

The final sample was 11 patients for the CG and 10 patients for the IG. The IG had significantly lower frailty at the end of follow-up compared to the CG (non-frail IG 80% vs. non-frail CG 18.1%, P = .0041). There were no differences in biomedical measurements, anthropometric data and in the questionnaires applied, however, the IG presented full compliance with physical exercise recommendations compared to the CG (100 vs. 27.3%, P = .002).

Conclusions

The nursing intervention for the management of frailty carried out in the IG reduces the number of patients with frailty.