Effects of frailty and comorbidity status on quality of life in elderly stroke patients
Liu Weichun
Yan Rong
Yan Xu
Sha Lu
Ju Ting
Lu Wenting
Xiao Meili
Li Rujun
Abstract：Objective To investigate the effects of frailty and comorbidity status on quality of life in elderly stroke patients,providing a reference for optimizing intervention strategies.Methods We retrospectively analyzed clinical data from 130 eld-erly stroke patients admitted to Tangdu Hospital,Air Force Medical University between February 2021 and December 2023.Stroke severity was evaluated by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale(NIHSS):NIHSS 0-7 was classified as mild(n=39),8-16 as moderate(n=58),and ≥17 as severe(n=33).Frailty was assessed using a comprehensive frailty assessment tool.Cumulative illness burden was evaluated with the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale(CIRS),recording both the severity index and comorbidity index.Quality of life was measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF(WHOQOL-BREF).Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine relationships among frailty,comorbidity sta-tus,and quality of life.Results Subscale(physical frailty,psychological frailty,social frailty,and environmental frailty)and total scores of frailty increased progressively across the mild,moderate,and severe groups,with statistically significant differences(F=152.743,61.140,97.789,92.033,92.456,respectively,P＜0.001).CIRS score,severity index,and comorbidity index also increased progressively across the three groups,with statistically significant differences(F=84.526,264.109,226.912,respectively,P＜0.001).Subscale(overall perception,social relationships,psychological function,en-vironmental function,physical function)and WHOQOL-BREF total scores decreased progressively from mild to severe groups,with statistically significant differences(F=39.080,59.117,39.171,55.771,35.590,43.625,respectively,P＜0.001).Pearson correlation analysis showed that the total frailty score was positively correlated with CIRS score,severity index,and comorbidity index(r=0.500,0.482,0.621,all P＜0.05)and negatively correlated with WHOQOL-BREF to-tal score(r=-0.525,P＜0.05).CIRS score,severity index,and comorbidity index were negatively correlated with WHOQOL-BREF total score(r=-0.469,-0.448,-0.591,all P＜0.05).Conclusion In elderly stroke patients,grea-ter frailty and higher comorbidity burden are associated with poorer quality of life.These findings highlight the challenges faced by elderly stroke patients in rehabilitation and quality of life and underscore the need for strengthening monitoring and interventions of frailty and comorbidity statuses to improve quality of life in this population.
Keywords：Elderly patientsStrokeFrailtyComorbidity indexQuality of life
Publication Date：2025-11-20
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-13(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 31-36 )