Abstract
BackgroundFrailty is a syndrome characterised by reduced strength, physiological function and endurance, which increases an individual’s risk of dependency and death. It is associated with an increased risk of adverse health outcomes for patients in hospital, including longer length of stay (LOS), in-hospital mortality, and readmission.
The Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS) is a frailty assessment tool which was developed and validated in secondary care within the UK National Health Service in 2018 for older people (>75 years) with high hospital resource use. Its calculation is based on 109 ICD-10 diagnosis codes related to frailty from electronic health records. HFRS tool is used to identify patients with characteristics of frailty and predict poor outcomes including long length of stay, in-hospital mortality, and readmission. Also, the advantage of the HFRS tool is that it uses hospital routine administrative data; thus, it can be implemented in most hospital information systems at low cost, quick, easy to use, and without additional burden on clinical staff.
HFRS has been widely used and validated in many countries for older patients. However, some studies used HFRS for patients with specific conditions or diseases across all adult ages, finding that HFRS remained a significant predictor of adverse outcomes.
Aim
This research aims to explore the relationships between the Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS) and a patient's length of hospital stay (LOS), risk of in-hospital mortality, and potential readmission to hospital after discharge; and determine the variables that positively influence the predictive power of HFRS across all adult ages. Also, it seeks to determine the association between HFRS and adverse outcomes among people at risk of sepsis.
| Date of Award | 11 Dec 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Jim Briggs (Supervisor), Mohamed Bader-El-Den (Supervisor) & Elisavet Andrikopoulou (Supervisor) |