Prevalence of frailty and cognitive impairment in older transplant candidates - a preview to the Kidney Transplantation in Older People (KTOP): impact of frailty on outcomes study

• Published in: BMC nephrology 2022-08, Vol.23 (1), p.283-283, Article 283
• Main Authors: Thind, Amarpreet K, Rule, Annabel, Goodall, Dawn, Levy, Shuli, Brice, Sarah, Dor, Frank J M F, Evans, Nicola, Ospalla, David, Thomas, Nicola, Wellsted, David, Johansson, Lina, Willicombe, Michelle, Brown, Edwina A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age groups; Aged; Aging; Candidates; Care and treatment; Chronic kidney failure; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognition disorders; Cognitive ability; Cognitive Dysfunction - epidemiology; Ethics; Frail elderly; Frailty; Frailty - diagnosis; Frailty - epidemiology; Health aspects; Hemodialysis; Humans; Kidney diseases; Kidney Transplantation; Kidney transplants; Kidneys; Lymphocytes; Medical research; Nephrology; Observational studies; Older people; Patient outcomes; Patients; Physiology; Prevalence; Prospective Studies; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Risk factors; Statistics; Transplantation
• ISSN: 1471-2369; 1471-2369
• DOI: 10.1186/s12882-022-02900-w

Kidney transplantation in older people has increased, however older transplant recipients experience mixed outcomes that invariably impacts on their quality of life. The increased vulnerability of older end stage kidney disease patients to frailty and cognitive impairment, may partially explain the differences in outcomes observed. The Kidney Transplantation in Older People (KTOP): impact of frailty on clinical outcomes study is an active clinical study aiming to explore the experience of older people waiting for and undergoing transplantation. In this manuscript we present the study protocol, the study cohort, and the prevalence of frailty and cognitive impairment identified at recruitment. The KTOP study is a single centre, prospective, mixed methods, observational study. Recruitment began in October 2019. All patients aged 60 or above either active on the deceased donor waitlist or undergoing live donor transplantation were eligible for recruitment. Recruited participants completed a series of questionnaires assessing frailty, cognition, and quality of life, which are repeated at defined time points whilst on the waitlist and post-transplant. Clinical data was concurrently collected. Any participants identified as frail or vulnerable were also eligible for enrolment into the qualitative sub-study. Two hundred eight participants have been recruited (age 60-78). Baseline Montreal Cognitive Assessments were available for 173 participants, with 63 (36.4%) participants identified as having scores below normal (score