Older persons are frailer after an emergency care visit to the out-of-hours general practitioner cooperative in the Netherlands: a cross-sectional descriptive TOPICS-MDS study

Table 4 Association between frailty and (no) out-of-hours GPC^a contact of older persons (n = 32,149)

Indicators of frailty	older persons n	out-of-hours GPC^a contact mean	no out-of-hours GPC^a contact mean	difference^b	95% CI^c	P-value^d
Frailty index TOPICS-MDS (FI)^e	29,465	0.27	0.21	0.037	0.034–0.040	< 0.0001
Comorbidity (CM)^f	29,672	3.43	2.76	0.52	0.47–0.57	< 0.0001
Functional limitations (FL)^g	29,759	3.57	2.82	0.53	0.46–0.60	< 0.0001
Emotional wellbeing (EW)^h	29,334	69.69	74.95	-4.10	-4.59 - -3.60	< 0.0001
Quality of life (EQ-5D)ⁱ	29,287	0.65	0.73	-0.057	-0.064 - -0.050	< 0.0001
Indicators of frailty	older persons n	out-of-hours GPC^a contact %	no out-of-hours GPC^a contact %	OR^j	95% CI^c	p-value^d
Limited social functioning (SF)	28,993	23.8	13.8	1.50	1.39–1.62	< 0.0001
Limited perceived health (PH)	29,728	57.8	42.3	1.61	1.51–1.71	< 0.0001

^a GPC general practitioner cooperative. ^b Difference between out-of-hours GPC contact and no out-of-hours GPC contact. ^c CI confidence interval. ^d bold p-values are statistically significant. ^e sum score range 0.00–0.85; a higher score represents a higher level of frailty. ^f sum score range 0–16; a higher score represents more reported comorbidities. ^g sum score range 0–15; a higher score represents more functional limitations in daily living activities. ^h sum score range 0–100; a higher score represents more emotional wellbeing. ⁱ sum score range − 0.33 – 1.00; a higher score represents a better quality of life. ^j OR = Odds Ratio based on multilevel analysis with correction for gender, age, socioeconomic status, hospital admission and cluster effects between studies

ISSN: 2731-4553