OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of renally inappropriate medication (RIM) on the
frailty of
elderly patients with diabetes.
METHODS The data of
elderly patients with
diabetes mellitus admitted to a third-grade class A
hospital in Yunnan province from January to December 2022 were collected, and
Beers criteria (2019 edition) and
Chinese version of FRAIL scale were used to evaluate RIM and the
frailty of the
patients; the
patients were divided into the trial group (with RIM) and the
control group (without RIM) according to whether there was RIM. The
propensity score matching was used to balance confounding factors between two groups, and the influence of RIM on the
frailty of
elderly diabetic
patients was analyzed by the
Logistic regression model. RESULTS Among the 367
patients, 80
patients (21.80%) had RIM, the
drugs involved RIM were
spironolactone (82.56%),
rivaroxaban (13.95%) and
gabapentin (3.49%). After reaching the balance between groups using the
propensity score matching
method, the
incidence of
frailty was 77.94% in trial group and 27.94% in
control group (P<0.001); the difference was not statistically significant in other confounding factors between the two groups (P>0.05). Results of
Logistic regression analysis showed that the
risk of
frailty in the experimental group was 3.118 times that of the
control group (
odds ratio was 3.118,95%
confidence interval was 1.758-5.530, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS RIM is a
risk factor for the
frailty of
elderly patients with diabetes, which can be considered as an
indicator for early identification and
screening of the
frailty of
elderly diabetes
patients.