Elderly who take care of elderly: a study on the Frailty Syndrome.

Objective: Identifying prevalence of frailty in elderly caregivers inserted in a high social vulnerability context and its correlation with sociodemographic and health aspects.

Method: Descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study. Forty elderly caregivers were evaluated with: questionnaire for caregiver characterization, Mini Mental State Examination, Katz Index, Lawton instrumental activities of daily living scale, Geriatric Depression Scale and the frailty phenotype proposed by Fried. Interviews were conducted at their residences and scheduled in advance. All ethical precautions were observed. Data were analyzed with the Stata statistical program version 11.0.

Results: 10% of elderly caregivers were frail. There was a significant correlation between frailty and sex, instrumental activities of daily living and cognition.

Conclusion: Female caregivers, partially dependent individuals regarding instrumental activities of daily living and with worse cognitive state deserve a special attention from health services.