title: Nurse home visits with or without alert buttons versus usual care in the frail elderly: a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether an intervention based on nurse home visits including alert buttons (NV+AB) is effective in reducing frailty compared to nurse home visits alone (NV-only) and usual care (control group) for older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Unblinded, randomized, controlled trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Insured population covered by the Mexican Social Security Institute living in the city of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients were aged over 60 years with a frailty index score higher than 0.14.
  
  
  METHODS
  After screening and informed consent, participants were allocated randomly to the control, NV+AB, or NV-only groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  The primary outcome was the frailty score 9 months later. Quality of life, depression, comorbidities, health status, and health service utilization were also considered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The framing sample included 819 patients. Of those, 591 were not located because they did not have a landline/telephone (341 patients), they had died (107), they were ill (50), or they were not currently living in the city (28). A screening interview was applied to 228 participants, and 57 had a score ≤0.14, 171 had ≥0.14, and 16 refused to complete the baseline questionnaire. A home visit was scheduled for 155 patients. However, 22 did not complete the baseline questionnaire. The final 133 subjects were randomized into the NV+AB (n = 45), NV-only (n = 44), and control (n = 44) groups. There were no statistically significant differences in the baseline characteristics of the groups. The mean age overall was 76.3 years (standard deviation 4.7) and 45% were men. At the baseline, 61.65% were classified as frail. At end of follow-up the adjusted prevalence of frailty in NV+AB group was 23.3% versus 58.3% in the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An intervention based on NV+AB seems to have a positive effect on frailty scores.
authors: Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
authors: Jesús
authors: J
authors: Favela
authors: Luis A
authors: LA
authors: Castro
authors: Francisco
authors: F
authors: Franco-Marina
authors: Sergio
authors: S
authors: Sánchez-García
authors: Teresa
authors: T
authors: Juárez-Cedillo
authors: Claudia
authors: C
authors: Espinel Bermudez
authors: Julia
authors: J
authors: Mora-Altamirano
authors: Marcela D
authors: MD
authors: Rodriguez
authors: Carmen
authors: C
authors: García-Peña
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition; D003863:Depression; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006304:Health Status; D006792:House Calls; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008800:Mexico; D009726:Nurses / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: elderly; frailty; gerontechnology
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