title: Upper-Extremity Function Predicts Adverse Health Outcomes among Older Adults Hospitalized for Ground-Level Falls.
abstract: Despite National Surgical Quality Improvement guidelines to integrate frailty into surgical elder assessments, a quick, accurate, and simple frailty assessment tool suitable for busy clinical settings is still not available. Recently, we have demonstrated that a simple upper-extremity function (UEF) test based on wearable sensors could identify frailty with high agreement with conventional assessments by testing 20-s repetitive elbow flexion and extension.
  
  
  
  We examined whether UEF parameters are sensitive for predicting adverse health outcomes in bedbound older adults admitted to hospital due to ground-level fall injuries.
  
  
  
  Frailty was assessed in 101 eligible older adults (age: 79 ± 9 years) admitted to a trauma setting using the UEF test at the time of admission. All participants were followed up for 2 months using phone calls and chart reviews. The measured health outcomes included (1) discharge disposition (favorable: discharge home or rehabilitation; unfavorable: discharge to skilled nursing facility or death), (2) hospital length of stay, (3) 30-day readmission, (4) 60-day readmission, and (5) 30-day prospective falls. Multivariate analyses were used to identify independent predictors of adverse health outcomes based on participants' demographic parameters (i.e., age, gender, and body mass index [BMI]) and UEF index.
  
  
  
  Based on the UEF frailty status, 53 (52%) of the participants were frail and 48 (48%) were non-frail. Among all adverse health outcomes, age was only a significant predictor of 30-day prospective falls (p = 0.023). On the other hand, the UEF index was a significant predictor of all measured outcomes except hospital length of stay (p < 0.010). Among the UEF parameters, those indicating slowness, weakness, and exhaustion had the highest effect sizes to predict an unfavorable discharge disposition (p < 0.010; effect size = 0.65-0.92).
  
  
  
  The results of this study suggest that a 20-s UEF test is practical in the trauma setting and could be used as a quick measure for predicting adverse events and outcomes among bedbound patients after discharge. Assessing frailty using UEF may assist in objective triage, treatment, and post-discharge decision-making with regard to geriatric trauma patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Trauma, Critical Care, Burn and Emergency Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Bellal
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.forename: Nima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Toosizadeh
authors.forename: Tahereh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Orouji Jokar
authors.forename: Michelle R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Heusser
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mohler
authors.forename: Bijan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Najafi
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D034941:Upper Extremity / Q000502:physiology*; D000076251:Wearable Electronic Devices
keywords: Bedbound patients; Discharge disposition; Fall incident; Frailty; Functional test; Inpatient care; Inpatient triage; Readmission; Trauma; Wearable technology