FIT-65: Frailty in the over 65’s undergoing elective surgery v2.91

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Frailty in the over 65’s undergoing elective surgery (FIT-65): A three-day study examining the prevalence of frailty in patients presenting for elective surgery across the Wessex deanery

• IRAS ID

  265846

• Contact name

  Sarah Harrison

• Contact email

  smesanderson@gmail.com

• Sponsor organisation

  University Hospital Southampton

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 2 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  An ageing population has led to increasing numbers of frail patients undergoing elective surgery. Due to the numerous tools used to assess frailty e.g. the Reported Edmonton Frail Scale (REFS) prevalence remains unclear. Frailty can be defined as a “distinctive health state related to the ageing process in which multiple body systems gradually lose their in-built reserves”. Frail individuals undergoing surgery are at increased risk of morbidity and mortality, but if identified early there are interventions that can improve their outcome.

  The primary objective of FIT-65 is to establish the prevalence of frailty in patients aged over 65 presenting for elective surgery in Wessex. It will also examine associations between frailty and:

  • Type and duration of anaesthesia
  • Seniority of staff caring for frail patients
  • Postoperative recovery
  • Length of hospital stay

  FIT-65 will aim to enrol patients in 8 Wessex hospitals. Data collection will take place during a 2 month study period over a period of three days in each hospital. The project will be conducted by doctors in training and not require additional funding.

  Theatre lists will be screened to identify eligible patients. Patients meeting inclusion criteria will be approached the morning of surgery and allocated an anonymised study number. A member of the research team will collect a pre-operative data set and a different researcher, unaware of the basic dataset, will complete the REFS with the participant before surgery.

  Following surgery a post-operative data set will be collected. The latter will not involve direct interaction with the participant.

  This study will allow us to better quantify the size of this vulnerable population, and may inform future work in improving their perioperative outcomes.

• REC name

  South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  19/SC/0623

• Date of REC Opinion

  23 Dec 2019

• REC opinion

  Unfavourable Opinion