Abstract:

Aim: Many factors such as functional losses, psychological changes, increased comorbidities and multiple drug use that occur with aging increase the risk of both frailty and care dependency in the elderly. This study was conducted to determine the effect of care dependency on the frailty level of elderly individuals who applied to the emergency department. Materials and Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 202 elderly individuals who applied to the emergency department of a public hospital between May 2021 and January 2022. “Descriptive Information Form”, “Edmonton Vulnerability Scale (ECS)” and ““Care- Dependent Scale (CDS)” were used to collect the research data. Data were evaluated with Spearman correlation test and Multiple linear regression analysis. Results: The mean age of the participants was 71.56±6.10, 61.9% of them were female, 51.5% were married, and 60.9% of them had primary education level. In the study, 67.3% of the elderly individuals stated that they felt old, 29.7% stated that they considered old age as a bad situation, and 47% stated that their general health status was moderate. It was determined that the total mean score of the “Care-Dependent Scale of the elderly individuals was 69.08 ± 12.76 and the mean total score of the Edmonton Vulnerability Scale was 7.91 ± 3.11. It was determined that 21.8% of the participants had severe, 25.2% moderate and 19.3% mild frailty. In addition, a strong negative correlation (r=-0.812; p<0.001) was found between care dependency and vulnerability in the study. Conclusion: In the study, it was found that the level of vulnerability increased as the level of dependence on others in meeting the care needs increased. In addition, it was determined that the variables of marital status, perception of old age, assessment of old age, perception of general health status affect fragility. It is recommended by healthcare professionals to evaluate care dependency and vulnerability in the elderly.

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