Frailty and depression in the hypertensive older patients; a cross-sectional study

Hypertension (HT) is one of the most common chronic diseases in the elderly in our country and worldwide. HT alone can trigger depression and fragility, and it is possible that these three clinical conditions affect each other negatively. However, there is no study in the literature that evaluated the relationship between these variables. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the frequency of frailty and depression in a group of geriatric HT patients, as well as the relationship between these three variables. A total of 276 (mean age:73.0±7.2) HT elderly patients, 126 (mean age:73.6±7.8) of whom were female, were included in the study. All participants were evaluated with the Katz Activities of Daily Living (ADL) index, the Lawton-Brody instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) index, The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) and the Freid Frailty Index (FFI). Analyzes were performed by dividing them into three groups according to their FFI scores. According to the FFI scores, 94 (34.1%) as pre-frail, 87 (31.5%) as frail and 95 (34.4%) as robust. FFI scores were positively correlated with age and GDS-15. However, FFI scores were negatively correlated with HGS, ADL and IADL. Age (p<0.001, OR= 1.98[1.04-1.16]), ADL (p<0.01, OR= 0.51[0.36-0.71]), IADL (p=0.044, OR= 0.78[0.62-0.99]) and GDS-15 score (p<0.001, OR= 1.24[1.10-1.40]) were found as independent variables for frailty. Our results provide evidence of a consistent bidirectional relationship between frailty and depression in geriatric patients with HT. Additionally, our data show that three out of four people with frailty have depression and one in two people with depression have frailty. Therefore, interventions should be developed to reduce one of the two syndromes in the elderly diagnosed with HT.