In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), symptoms of chronic and progressive dyspnea, cough and sputum production impact exercise tolerance and functionality. Being mostly elderly, the risk for frailty also has a great clinical impact. However, it is not routinely investigated in people with COPD, which may lead to less impact of functional dependence prevention strategies. Thus, the stratification of elderly people with COPD into frailty profiles can provide important prognostic information, enabling the development of prevention, promotion, and rehabilitation actions in health.

Stratify the frailty profiles of community-dwelling elderly with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

25 community-dwelling elderly (68.9±6.54) with a diagnosis of COPD who answered the Vulnerable Elders Survey -13 (VES-13) questionnaire, present in the elderly person's health booklet, were included to stratify the vulnerability profile. The categories of the Comprehensive International Classification of Functioning (ICF) Core Set for COPD to detail functional limitations and disabilities were evaluated based on the response to the VES-13.

The study included 25 elderly people with COPD, with a mean age of 68.9 years. As for vulnerability classification, 12 (48%) volunteers had a robust elderly profile, 8 (32%) elderly people had a pre-frailty profile, and 5 (20%) volunteers had a frail profile. No significant correlation was found between VES-13 and age, BMI, calf circumference, FEV1/FVC, physical activity, falls, unintentional weight loss. Regarding the ICF Core Set for COPD, the relevance of the categories found in the present study is highlighted, with difficulty or inability to perform household tasks, to walk, and difficulty or inability to make basic changes in body position, more specifically difficulty or inability to crouch.

Elderly people with COPD who live in the community have a higher prevalence of pre-frailty and affection. However, this parameter was not presented with other parameters that impact functional independence. Thus, the tracing of traffic in people with COPD residing in the community still needs to be deepened considering the different mobility conditions of this population.

The findings may guide the development of interventions that can lead to better management of frailty in this population. In addition to facilitating the implementation of interventions capable of preventing functional independence.