Analysis of relationship between dynapenia and autonomy in elderly patients

Dynapenia and the degree of autonomy are among the geriatric syndromes. The objective of this work is to determine the relationship between dynapenia and autonomy of individuals with the age of 65 years and above, who have visited the Internal Medicine and Geriatric Outpatient Clinics in Ege University School of Medicine Hospital. In this cross-sectional research, patients with the age of 65 years and above attending to Internal Medicine and Geriatric Outpatient Clinics in Ege University School of Medicine Hospital were included. Prior to choosing the sample space, we aimed to include 100 patients, however 183 elderly applicants were selected for the investigation between September-November 2015. The metric of Functional Autonomy Measurement System (SMAF) together with a specifically designed elderly presentation form have been used for the data collection. Dependent variables were obtained from the metric of autonomy evaluation scores. Age, gender, level of education, presence of chronic diseases, use of multiple drugs, disability level, use of disability support tools, dynapenia, walking speed, and body mass index were defined as the independent variables. The researcher used face-to-face interview technique in order to collect data. Statistics such as percentage, median, average value, standard deviation, and Chi-square test were used to analyze and evaluate the results. Average age of the test participants was 72.5±6.5 (min-max: 65-91) years, and 52.5% (n=96) were female. Based on the SMAF metric, it was shown that 53.6% of the participants belonged to the dependent group. SMAF score was -5.5 (min:-41, max:0), lower bound median of the daily life activities was -5.0 (min:-40, max: 0), lower bound median in the communication skill was 0.0 (min:-3, max: 0), and lower bound median of mental functions was -1.0 (min:-4, max:0). Density of dynapenia among the participants was 61.7%, and walking speed was found to be slower in 55.7%. Average muscle strength of the participants was 22.15±9.32 kg (min:4, max:45.9) and average walking speed was obtained as 0.9±0.4 m/sec (min:0.5, maks:3.25). A noticeable relation between autonomy and the age has been observed (p=0.02), (p<0.05). The autonomy of the elderly group (67.9%) with the age over 75 years was found to be less than the rest of the group. A noticeable relation between autonomy and the gender has also been observed (p=1.00), (p >0.05). When determining the elderly patients with autonomy risks, it was found out that males (55.2%) had less autonomy compared to females. Existence of dynapenia had considerable negative effects on the autonomy (p=0.00), (p<0.05). It was shown that 40% (n=28) of the elderly with dynapenia had more risks with respect to autonomy (have less autonomy). Keywords: Elderly, autonomy, functional status, dinapenia