Demographic characteristics of the study population
| Characteristic | No. (%) of included patients* | No. (%) of excluded patients* | |
|---|---|---|---|
| n = 2254 | n = 298† | n = 233‡ | |
| Age, yr; mean ± SD | 84.8 ± 14.0 | 85.1 ± 13.6 | 84.9 ± 7.5 |
| Sex, female | 1246 (55.3) | 180 (60.4) | 135 (57.9) |
| With dementia | 1127 (50.0) | 160 (53.7) | 99 (42.5) |
| With delirium | 770 (34.2) | 83 (27.9) | 30 (12.9) |
| With a history of falls | 976 (43.3) | 137 (46.0) | 84 (36.1) |
| FI-Laboratory score (95% CI) | 0.3 (0.2–0.4) | – | 0.2 (0.1–0.3) |
| Admissions per patient during study enrolment (21 mo), mean ± SD | 2.2 ± 1.7 | 2.1 ± 1.7 | – |
| Length of stay, d; median ± IQR | 6 (1–11) | 4 (1–7) | – |
| Died | 1266 (56.4) | 143 (48.6) | 104 (44.6) |
| Admitted from home | 1990 (88.7) | 261 (88.8) | 207 (88.8) |
| Discharged to: | |||
| Home | 1682 (75.0) | 227 (77.2) | 207 (88.8) |
| Residential care home | 43 (1.9) | 8 (2.7) | 2 (0.9) |
| Nursing care home | 177 (7.9) | 24 (8.2) | 8 (3.4) |
| Hospital transfer | 157 (7.0) | 18 (6.1) | 9 (3.9) |
| Died | 182 (8.1) | 17 (5.8) | 6 (2.6) |
| Other | 2 (0.1) | – | 1 (0.4) |
| Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) | |||
| Very fit (CFS = 1) | 2 (0.1) | 1 (0.3) | – |
| Well (CFS = 2) | 9 (0.4) | – | 4 (1.7) |
| Managing well (CFS = 3) | 29 (1.3) | 4 (1.4) | 11 (4.7) |
| Vulnerable (CFS = 4) | 156 (7.0) | 22 (7.5) | 31 (13.3) |
| Mildly frail (CFS = 5) | 548 (24.4) | 67 (22.8) | 68 (29.2) |
| Moderately frail (CFS = 6) | 810 (36.1) | 120 (40.8) | 77 (33.0) |
| Severely frail (CFS = 7) | 575 (25.6) | 65 (22.1) | 32 (13.7) |
| Very severely frail (CFS = 8) | 91 (4.1) | 9 (3.1) | 9 (3.9) |
| Terminally ill (CFS = 9) | 23 (1.0) | 6 (2.0) | 1 (0.4) |
Note: CI = confidence interval, FI-Laboratory = Frailty Index of common laboratory tests, IQR = interquartile range, SD = standard deviation.
↵* Unless speciified otherwise.
↵† Patients excluded because there were too few laboratory tests to create an FI-Laboratory score.
↵‡ Patients excluded because hospital length of stay was less than 24 hours.