Prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis

Objective Frailty is a common geriatric syndrome and is characterised by a decreased physiological reserve and increased vulnerability to stressors. Pre-frailty is a risk-state before frailty. A systematic literature review (SLR) and meta-analysis was conducted to: (1) estimate the prevalence of (pre-)frailty in RA patients; (2) explore whether variation in instruments influences (pre-)frailty prevalence. Methods An SLR for the period 2001-2021 was undertaken. All studies (including conference abstracts) that reported on the prevalence of (pre)-frailty in patients with RA were included. Assessment of risk of bias, data extraction and data synthesis were performed by two reviewers independently. A meta-analysis was conducted for studies that used the most commonly accepted frailty instrument (Fried criteria), by obtaining pooled estimates of (pre-) frailty prevalences by random effects models. Results 25/1,363 studies were included in the SLR. Weighted average age was 58.0 years. Pre-frailty prevalence rates ranged between 20.4%-71% (median: 35.8%); for frailty, rates between 1.2%–75.1% (median: 23.1%) were found. The meta-analysis (Fried criteria), showed a pooled prevalence of 52.8% (95%-CI=42.7–62.8; I ²=99%) for pre-frailty and 24.0% (95%-CI= 19.4–28.6; I ²=96%) for frailty. (Pre-)frailty was highly prevalent in all age groups. Prevalence was generally higher when the frailty instrument also included psychological and social domains, as compared to instruments that solely focused on the physical domain. Conclusion (Pre-)frailty is common in RA patients. Large part of the variation is explained by clinical and methodological heterogeneity. High-quality studies with validated frailty instruments specifically for RA patients are needed.