Identification of Correlation Between Frailty and Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in Elderly Male Using Korean-FRAIL Scale

Purpose: The K-FRAIL scale is a Korean version of the aging questionnaire that allows screening and diagnosis of easily observable aging in the elderly through a simple self-answer questionnaire. The objective of this study was to examine the relation between fraility and clinical symptoms of the lower urinary tract in elderly men using the K-FRAIL scale.

Materials and methods: A prospective study was conducted on 100 patients who underwent urological examination at our hospital from January 2021 to December 2021. Among them, 62 patients who met the study criteria completed the following questionnaires and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) parameters: K-FRAIL, International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), prostate specific antigen, transrectal ultrasonography, and uroflowmetry. In this cross-sectional study, we compared the K-FRAIL scale parameters with various clinical examination parameters in elderly men presenting with LUTS. We also assessed the time required to complete the scale.

Results: The age of the subjects was 66.8±5.96 years in the normal group and 71.6±9.83 years in the frail group (p=0.027). In terms of IPSS indicators, the total scores of the natural patient group and the frail patient group were 13.24±5.48 and 20.44±9.67 (p=0.001); in terms of patient serum testosterone indicators, the scores of the natural patient group and the frail patient group were 4.32±1.52 and 3.74±1.64, respectively (p=0.163). The results indicated that IPSS item 7 and serum testosterone were significant predictors (odds ratio [OR]=4.679, p=0.29; OR=0.391, p=0.043, respectively).

Conclusions: The results of this study show that elderly men with fraility are more likely to develop nocturia and lower testosterone. When treating men with fraility, it will be helpful to know these characteristics and treat them.