Prevalence of frailty in people living with HIV over 60 years old in southern Spain

This cross-sectional study aims to describe the prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty in a cohort of people living with HIV in southern Spain. Patients were classified according to Fried frailty phenotype. Questionnaires on anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale), loneliness (University of California), resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale [10-item version]), and socioeconomic information were collected from the participants, their medical history was reviewed to collect comorbidities, non-AIDS events, and drug use. A cluster analysis was conducted to identify participants most likely to be frail. Fifty-two patients were recruited, mostly men, median age 64 years. Four patients were identified as frail (7.7%), 26 as pre-frail (50%), and 22 as robust (43.3%). Frailty was associated with lower socioeconomic level, loneliness, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Diabetes mellitus was present in all frail patients, and the number of non-antiretroviral medications was higher too. Cluster analysis revealed that the presence of high triglyceride levels and low glomerular filtration rate or high body mass index predicted the presence of frailty. Frailty is associated with certain social and neuropsychiatric characteristics that must be considered. We provide a simple tool to identify those individuals for whom the frailty screening should be started.