Research Article

Does Frailty Predict Health Care Utilization in Community-Living Older Romanians?

Table 1

Frequencies of sociodemographic data, visits to the general practitioner (GP), hospital admission, and occurrence of new health problems by frailty scores on Groningen Frailty Indicator (GFI), in %; .

VariableScoreFrailty score GFIPercentages (total 100%)
Not frailFrail

Age 65–69 years23.5%20.6%22.1%
70–74 years31.6%26.1%29.0%
75–79 years30.6%28.3%29.4%
80 years or >14.3%25.0%19.5%

Gender Women60.2%70.7%65.3%
Men39.8%29.3%34.7%

Marital status Married60.2%55.4%57.9%
Widowed39.8%43.4%41.6%
Not married0.0%1.2%0.5%

Urban-rural living Urban78.6%72.5%75.3%
Rural21.4%27.5%24.7%

Frequency of visits to GP in the last 12 monthNo visit7.1%12.1%9.5%
1 visit6.1%6.5%6.3%
2 visits10.2%9.7%10.0%
>2 visits76.5%71.7%74.2%

Hospital admission in the last 12 months None73.5%60.9%67.4%
1 admission19.4%31.5%25.3%
2 admissions+7.1%7.6%7.4%

Occurrence of a new health care problemNo67.3%63.1%65.2%
Do not know9.2%9.5%7.9%
Yes23.5%30.4%26.9%