PREDICTIVE VALUE OF PERFORMANCE-BASED FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT IN OLDER HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS

We assess the ability of the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) to predict hospitalization, death and functional decline in older patients in the year after discharge from the hospital. We enrolled 92 women and men aged 65 and older able to walk and with a MMSE score ≥ 18, admitted to the hospital for an acute medical event. Participants were evaluated with SPPB (range 0-12) at hospital admission, were reevaluated the day of hospital discharge. The mean age of the sample was 77.2±6.3 years; 51.2% were women. Mean SPPB score at discharge was 7.12±3.0. After full adjustment, the SPPB score at hospital discharge was inversely correlated with the rate of decline in ADL performance over the follow-up (p=0.022). Forty-eight (55.8%) patients were readmitted to the hospital and 11 (12.8%) have died over the follow-up. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, patients with better SPPB score at hospital discharge (score:8-12) had a lower risk of hospitalization or death (OR: 0.19, IC 95% 0.06-0.62) compared to patients with the lowest SPPB score (0-4). In older acute geriatric patients the SPPB provides important prognostic information. Lower-extremity performance-based functional assessment might identify older patients at high risk of poor outcomes after hospital discharg