• Marcela Naiara Graciani Fumagale Macedo, Élen Dos Santos Alves, Isabela Thaís Machado de Jesus, Keika Inouye, Tábatta Renata Pereira de Brito, and Ariene Angelini Dos Santos-Orlandi.
• Undergraduate Student, Department of Gerontology, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos (SP), Brazil.
• Sao Paulo Med J. 2022 Jan 1; 141 (3): e202272e202272.

BackgroundThe task of caring can arise suddenly without guidance or support, resulting in psychological tension and health impairment, which can culminate in the development of frailty.ObjectiveTo analyze the relationship between frailty and sociodemographic and health aspects related to the care context of older caregivers.Design And SettingA cross-sectional study was conducted on 65 older caregivers registered in family health units in the interior of the state of São Paulo.MethodsThe participants were interviewed individually using the following instruments: a characterization questionnaire, Fried's frailty phenotype, Zarit Burden's Interview, Mini-Mental State Examination, Geriatric Depression Scale, Katz Index, and Lawton Scale. In addition, the following statistical tests were applied: Pearson's chi-squared test, Fisher's exact test, and Mann-Whitney test. A significance level of 5% was considered to be statistically significant.ResultsWomen who took care of their spouses predominated without prior training or the help of other people. Most of the patients were pre-frail (72.3%). Frailty was significantly related to marital status (P = 0.016), depressive symptoms (P = 0.029), cognitive decline (P = 0.029), the degree of kinship (P = 0.015), and burden (P = 0.004).ConclusionOlder caregivers without a partner, with severe depressive symptoms and cognitive changes, who cared for their parents, and had higher levels of burden, presented a higher proportion of frailty.

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