Preoperative Frailty Screening Using Risk Analysis Index
Author Information
Author(s): Khalighi Mehraneh, Thomas Amy, Brown Karl, Ritchey Katherine
Primary Institution: VA Puget Sound Healthcare System
Hypothesis
The agreement between provider-completed and patient-completed RAI-C scores is unknown.
Conclusion
Preoperative frailty screening is feasible with the RAI-C tool, but consistency varies between providers and patients.
Supporting Evidence
- RAI screening occurred in 48% of eligible patients.
- Providers were less accurate in referring frail patients compared to robust or very frail patients.
- Screening frequency improved with dedicated nursing champions reminding providers to screen.
- The correlation between patient-completed and provider-completed RAI-C was moderate (r=0.634).
- Patient-completed RAI-C re-classified 29% of patients to a higher frailty category.
Takeaway
Doctors and patients can use a special form to check if someone is frail before surgery, but they might not always agree on the results.
Methodology
Orthopedic providers completed the RAI-C on Veterans ≥65 years awaiting surgery and compared scores with those completed by patients.
Limitations
The study did not specify the sample size and the agreement was lowest in certain domains.
Participant Demographics
Veterans aged 65 and older awaiting elective total joint arthroplasty.
Statistical Information
P-Value
<0.001
Statistical Significance
p<0.001
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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