Frailty status and associated factors among older PLHIV in Southern Ethiopia

Endrias Markos Woldesemayat; Natalie St Clair-Sullivan; Andargachew Kassa; Taye Gari; Keneni Gutema; Nana Chea; Kindie Woubshet; Netsanet Bogale; Amare Assefa; Jaime Vera

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0284376

Frailty status and associated factors among older PLHIV in Southern Ethiopia

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 24;18(4):e0284376. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284376. eCollection 2023.

Affiliations

¹ College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia.
² Department of Global Health and Infection, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.
³ College of Health Sciences, Jima University, Jima, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: Studies addressing frailty are limited in the global south, including Ethiopia. We estimated the prevalence of frailty and associated factors among older people living with HIV (PLHIV) attending a large Comprehensive Specialized Hospital in southern Ethiopia.

Methods: A systematic sample of 187 PLHIV and 187 HIV-negative controls > 50 years old were recruited between October 1 and November 30, 2021. Data on socio-demographic, behavioural and clinical characteristics were collected using a structured questionnaire. Frailty assessments were completed using the brief frailty instrument (B-FIT-2), which consists of 6 components. Scoring 5-6 points was frail, 2-4 points were pre-frail and below 2 was considered as non-frail. Logistic regression model was used to measure association between variables.

Results: Median (IQR) age was 53 (50, 80) for PLWH and 59 (55-66) for controls. Prevalence of frailty was 9.1% for PLHIV Versus 5.9% for controls. A significant proportion of PLHIV was pre-frail; 141 (75.4%) compared to controls 110 (58.8%). Pre-frailty status was associated with HIV diagnosis (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 4.2; 95% CI 1.8-9.9), low age (aOR 0.3; 95% CI 0.1-0.6), lower educational attainment (aOR 2.2; 95% CI 1.0-4.9), being farmer (aOR 3.2; 95% CI 1.0-10.2) and having high or low body mass index (BMI) (aOR 11.3; 95% CI 4.0-25.8). HIV diagnosis (aOR 9.7; 95% CI 1.6-56.8), age (aOR 0.2; 95% CI 0.1-0.7), lower educational attainment (aOR 5.2; 95% CI 1.5-18.2), single status (aOR 4.2; 95% CI 1.3-13.6), farmer (aOR 19.5; 95% CI 3.5-109.1) and high or low BMI (aOR 47.3; 95% CI 13.8-161.9) predicted frailty.

Conclusion: A high proportion of frailty and pre-frailty was observed in a cohort of older PLHIV attending care in Southern Ethiopia. Future research should focus on interventions targeting factors associated with frailty.

Copyright: © 2023 Woldesemayat et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Ethiopia / epidemiology
Frailty* / epidemiology
HIV Infections* / epidemiology
Humans
Middle Aged
Prevalence
Surveys and Questionnaires

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.21929898

Grants and funding

The University of Sussex has provided fund to carry out the study Dr. Endrias Markos Woldesemayat, G 2626-25 on the date 4/6/2021. The funder had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of the authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.