La fragilité et l'utilisation des services de santé chez les aînés québécois victimes d'une fracture mineure

Peu de données sont disponibles quant à l’utilisation des services de santé par les personnes âgées fragiles ayant subi une fracture. Actuellement, cette information provient principalement d’études de cohortes ou d’essais cliniques. Dans de telles études, la fragilité est généralement mesurée à l’aide d’indices ou d’échelles cliniques. Ces mesures ne sont généralement pas incluses dans les bases de données administratives disponibles pour la prise de décision, la surveillance ou la recherche populationnelle. Cependant, avec l’augmentation attendue des ressources de santé liées à la fragilité, les méthodes pour identifier les aînés fragiles dans ces bases de données sont prioritaires. Nous avons donc conduit une étude de cohorte populationnelle pour décrire et identifier les services de santé utilisés par cette population après une consultation médicale pour une fracture mineure. Les objectifs de cette étude étaient d’évaluer la prévalence de la fragilité des aînés ayant subi une fracture mineure dans les bases de données administratives de santé du Québec, d’examiner la relation entre la fragilité et l’utilisation des services de santé dans l’année qui a suivi la consultation médicale pour cette fracture et de mesurer l’excès de la consommation des services de santé suivant la fracture récente. Il existe de nombreuses raisons de mesurer la fragilité, incluant l’identification des personnes présentant un risque accru de problèmes de santé. Cette étude populationnelle suggère que les personnes âgées identifiées comme fragiles par l’«Elders Risk Assessment index» et qui sont victimes de fractures même mineures utilisent davantage les services de santé dans l’année suivant leur fracture. Cette utilisation des bases de données administratives du Québec indique que, dans une perspective de santé publique, il est possible de les utiliser pour la surveillance de la fragilité et de ses conséquences pour les personnes âgées.Few data are available on the use of health services of frail elderly people who have experienced a minor fracture. Currently, information on the identification of frail seniors and on their health resources needs and use mostly comes from cohort studies or from clinical trials. In such studies, frailty is generally measured using clinical indices or scales, which are not included in population-based high-quality administrative databases available for decision-making, population surveillance or research. However, given the expected increase in frailty-related health resources-use associated with population ageing, methodologies to identify frail seniors within such secondary healthcare data, both at patient and population levels, are current surveillance priorities. We therefore conducted a population-based cohort study to describe and identify health services use by this population after a medical consultation for a minor fracture. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of frailty among community-dwelling seniors who sustained a recent non-hip fracture in Quebec health administrative databases, to examine the association between frailty and the use of medical services in the year following the fracture and to measure the excess use of health services following that fracture across frailty levels. There are many reasons to measure frailty, including identification of people who are at an increased risk of adverse health outcomes. This population-based study suggests that seniors identified as frail by the Elders Risk Assessment index and sustaining relatively minor fractures use more health services in the year post-fracture. This first use of Quebec’s administrative databases indicates that, in a public health perspective, it might be possible to use them for surveillance on frailty and its consequences among seniors

Frailty and health services use among Quebec seniors with non-hip fractures: a population-based study using adminsitrative databases

Abstract Background The number of frail elderly will increase as the world population ageing accelerates. Since frail elders are at risk of falls, hospitalizations and disabilities, they will require more health care and services. To assess frailty prevalence using health administrative databases, to examine the association between frailty and the use of medical services and to measure the excess use of health services following a non-hip fracture across frailty levels among community-dwelling seniors. Methods A population-based cohort study was built from the Quebec Integrated Chronic Disease Surveillance System, including men and women ≥65 years old, non-institutionalized in the pre-fracture year. Frailty was measured using the Elders Risk Assessment (ERA) index. Multivariate Generalized Estimating Equation models were used to examine the relationship between frailty levels and health services while adjusting for covariates. The excess numbers of visits to Emergency Departments (ED) and to Primary Care Practitioners (PCP) as well as hospitalizations were also estimated. Results The cohort included 178,304 fractures. There were 13.6 and 5.2% frail and robust seniors, respectively. In the post-fracture year, the risks of ED visits, PCP visits and hospitalizations, were significantly higher in frail vs. non-frail seniors: adjusted relative risk (RR) = 2.69 [95% CI: 2.50–2.90] for ED visits, RR = 1.28 [95% CI: 1.23–1.32] for PCP visits and RR = 2.34 [95% CI: 2.14–2.55] for hospitalizations. Conclusion Our results suggest that it is possible to characterize seniors’ frailty status at a population level using health administrative databases. Furthermore, this study shows that non-institutionalized frail seniors require more health services after an incident fracture. Screening for frailty in seniors should be part of clinical management in order to identify those at a higher risk of needing health services

Impact of Obesity on Perinatal Outcomes among Asthmatic Women

BACKGROUND: Only one study has investigated the combined effect of maternal asthma and obesity on perinatal outcomes; however, it did not consider small-for-gestational age and large-for-gestational age infants