Prevalence of physical frailty, including risk factors, up to 1 year after hospitalisation for COVID-19 in the UK: a multicentre, longitudinal cohort study
Hamish McAuley, Rachael A Evans, Charlotte E. Bolton, Christopher E. Brightling, James D. Chalmers, Annemarie B Docherty, Omer Elneima, Paul L. Greenhaff, Ayushman Gupta, Victoria Harris, Ewen M. Harrison, Ling‐Pei Ho, Alex Horsley, Linzy Houchen‐Wolloff, Caroline J. Jolley, Olivia C. Leavy, Nazir Lone, William D‐C Man, Michael Marks, Dhruv Parekh, Krisnah Poinasamy, Jennifer K Quint, Betty Raman, Matthew Richardson, Ruth Saunders, Marco Sereno, Aarti Shikotra, Amisha Singapuri, Sally Singh, Michael Steiner, Ai Lyn Tan, Louise V. Wain, Carly Welch, Julie Whitney, Miles D. Witham, Janet M. Lord, Neil Greening, Kathryn M. Abel, Huzaifa Adamali, Davies Adeloye, O Adeyemi, R Adrego, L A Aguilar Jimenez, Shazaad Ahmad, Nafees Haider, Rizwan Ahmed, N Ahwireng, Mark Ainsworth, B Al-Sheklly, A Alamoudi, Mohammad Ali, M Aljaroof, A.M. All, Louise Allan, R Allen, L. Allerton, Lynne Allsop, P. Almeida, Doris Altmann, Maria Alvarez Corral, S Amoils, Debra Anderson, Chrystalina A. Antoniades, G. Arbane, Ana Arias, Chérie Armour, Lará Armstrong, Natalie Armstrong, David Arnold, H Arnold, Abdul Ashish, Andrew Ashworth, Mark Ashworth, S Aslani, H Assefa-Kebede, Catherine Atkin, Philip A. Atkin, Raminder Aul, Htin Aung, Luke Austin, Cristina Avram, A Ayoub, Marta Babores, Rob Baggott, J. Bagshaw, David Baguley, L. Charles Bailey, J. Kenneth Baillie, S. Bain, M Bakali, M Bakau, Eileen Baldry, David Baldwin, Molly M Baldwin, Clive Ballard, Amitava Banerjee, B. Bang, Ruth E Barker, L Barman, Shaney Barratt
Abstract
Background: The scale of COVID-19 and its well documented long-term sequelae support a need to understand long-term outcomes including frailty. Methods: This prospective cohort study recruited adults who had survived hospitalisation with clinically diagnosed COVID-19 across 35 sites in the UK (PHOSP-COVID). The burden of frailty was objectively measured using Fried's Frailty Phenotype (FFP). The primary outcome was the prevalence of each FFP group-robust (no FFP criteria), pre-frail (one or two FFP criteria) and frail (three or more FFP criteria)-at 5 months and 1 year after discharge from hospital. For inclusion in the primary analysis, participants required complete outcome data for three of the five FFP criteria. Longitudinal changes across frailty domains are reported at 5 months and 1 year post-hospitalisation, along with risk factors for frailty status. Patient-perceived recovery and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) were retrospectively rated for pre-COVID-19 and prospectively rated at the 5 month and 1 year visits. This study is registered with ISRCTN, number ISRCTN10980107. Findings: Between March 5, 2020, and March 31, 2021, 2419 participants were enrolled with FFP data. Mean age was 57.9 (SD 12.6) years, 933 (38.6%) were female, and 429 (17.7%) had received invasive mechanical ventilation. 1785 had measures at both timepoints, of which 240 (13.4%), 1138 (63.8%) and 407 (22.8%) were frail, pre-frail and robust, respectively, at 5 months compared with 123 (6.9%), 1046 (58.6%) and 616 (34.5%) at 1 year. Factors associated with pre-frailty or frailty were invasive mechanical ventilation, older age, female sex, and greater social deprivation. Frail participants had a larger reduction in HRQoL compared with before their COVID-19 illness and were less likely to describe themselves as recovered. Interpretation: Physical frailty and pre-frailty are common following hospitalisation with COVID-19. Improvement in frailty was seen between 5 and 12 months although two-thirds of the population remained pre-frail or frail. This suggests comprehensive assessment and interventions targeting pre-frailty and frailty beyond the initial illness are required. Funding: UK Research and Innovation and National Institute for Health Research.