Background: During the Covid-19 pandemic healthcare services were highly disrupted, and little is known about the role of frailty and multimorbidity in predicting health services utilization in older adults. We aim to explore the association of frailty and multimorbidity, respectively, with health visits due to non-Covid related acute conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: We used data from the Corona Immunitas Ticino (CIT) study collected between September 2020 and September 2021. We built a Frailty Index (FI) based on 30 health deficits, and grouped participants into robust, pre-frail, and frail. We defined multimorbidity as the presence of two or more self-reported, clinically diagnosed chronic diseases. We used logistic and generalized linear models adjusted for age, gender, smoking status, and education level. Results: We included 660 older adults (≥65 years) with complete data (78% of the CIT sample). Of these, 10.3% were frail, 41.5% were robust, and 26.7% reported at least two chronic diseases. In mutually adjusted logistic models, compared with robust and non-multimorbid participants respectively, frail ones were 2.3 times (p=0.011), and multimorbid participants were 1.7 times (p=0.012) more likely to access health care services due to non-Covid related acute conditions. In the general linear model, FI as a continuous variable was associated with a higher number of health services visits (r=2.35, p=0.013). Conclusion: During Covid-19 outbreaks in southern Switzerland both frailty and multimorbidity continued to predict health service utilization due to non-Covid related health conditions, which might have contributed to increase infection risk in older adults.

Authors:
Miao Jiang, Institute of Public Health, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
Laurie Corna, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern , Switzerland
Rebecca Amati, Institute of Public Health, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
Luca Crivelli, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern, Switzerland
Emiliano Albanese, Institute of Public Health, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland

About the Presenter(s)
Miao Jiang is a medical doctor. She is doing Ph.D. in Public Health at Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland. Her Ph.D. project is about the epidemiological aspects of frailty in southern Switzerland, China, and Latin America.

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Miao-Jiang-3

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