Leiden University Student Repository

Harrison, Henry (2021)

Effect of Frailty on Quality of Life in Elderly Psychiatric Patients: A Longitudinal Study

Master thesis | Psychology (MSc)

The aim of this study was to investigate quality of life (QoL) changes in elderly psychiatric patients with and without frailty. Forty-six Dutch patients (67.4% women and 32.6% male, mean age 74.9 years (SD 7.3)) who were treated by Parnassia, Den Haag, a psychiatric hospital, were investigated in this study. Frailty was defined by the Fried Criteria and QoL was measured using the EuroQol EQ5d 3L which investigates the domains of mobility, self-care, activity, anxiety/depression, and pain/discomfort. Frailty was present in 11 of the 46 patients. Frailty was associated with worse overall QoL than non-frailty, with a moderate effect size; U = 72.0, p = .002, r = .458. Frail patients had significantly lower scores in the self-care domain at baseline than non-frail patients; U = 98.0, p = .003, r = .435. For all other domains, no significant differences between frail and non-frail groups were found at baseline. Frail and non-frail patients saw significant improvement in QoL between...Show moreThe aim of this study was to investigate quality of life (QoL) changes in elderly psychiatric patients with and without frailty. Forty-six Dutch patients (67.4% women and 32.6% male, mean age 74.9 years (SD 7.3)) who were treated by Parnassia, Den Haag, a psychiatric hospital, were investigated in this study. Frailty was defined by the Fried Criteria and QoL was measured using the EuroQol EQ5d 3L which investigates the domains of mobility, self-care, activity, anxiety/depression, and pain/discomfort. Frailty was present in 11 of the 46 patients. Frailty was associated with worse overall QoL than non-frailty, with a moderate effect size; U = 72.0, p = .002, r = .458. Frail patients had significantly lower scores in the self-care domain at baseline than non-frail patients; U = 98.0, p = .003, r = .435. For all other domains, no significant differences between frail and non-frail groups were found at baseline. Frail and non-frail patients saw significant improvement in QoL between baseline and 1-year follow-up measures t = 3.809, df = 10, p = .003 and Z = 2.22, p = .027, r = .375 respectively. Frail patients saw improvements in all domains except activity, while non-frail patients saw improvements only in the domain of anxiety/depression. We found that treatment of frail patients has a large benefit on the patients’ QoL, which was greater than for those without frailty. In those who are frail, activity is the domain which improves the least and therefore we suggest activity as the area where researchers may target their efforts in future research and treatment possibilities.Show less

Author

Harrison, Henry

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Clinical Psychology

Supervisors

Berg, J. van den

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en