Long-Term Evaluation of the Ambulatory Geriatric Assessment: A Frailty Intervention Trial (AGe-FIT): Clinical Outcomes and Total Costs After 36 Months

Objective: To compare the effects of care based on comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) as a complement to usual care in an outpatient setting with those of usual care alone. The assessment was performed 36 months after study inclusion. Design: Randomized, controlled, assessor-blinded, single-center trial. Setting: A geriatric ambulatory unit in a municipality in the southeast of Sweden. Participants: Community-dwelling individuals aged 2:75 years who had received inpatient hospital care 3 or more times in the past 12 months and had 3 or more concomitant medical diagnoses were eligible for study inclusion. Participants were randomized to the intervention group (IG) or control group (CG). Intervention: Participants in the IG received CGA-based care for 24 to 31 months at the geriatric ambulatory unit in addition to usual care. Outcome measures: Mortality, transfer to nursing home, days in hospital, and total costs of health and social care after 36 months. Results: Mean age (SD) of participants was 82.5 (4.9) years. Participants in the IG (n ¼ 208) lived 69 days longer than did those in the CG (n ¼ 174); 27.9% (n ¼ 58) of participants in the IG and 38.5% (n ¼ 67) in the CG died (hazard ratio 1.49, 95% confidence interval 1.05e2.12, P ¼ .026). The mean number of inpatient days was lower in the IG (15.1 [SD 18.4]) than in the CG (21.0 [SD 25.0], P ¼ .01). Mean overall costs during the 36-month period did not differ between the IG and CG (USD 71,905 [SD 85,560] and USD 65,626 [SD 66,338], P ¼ .43). Conclusions: CGA-based care resulted in longer survival and fewer days in hospital, without significantly higher cost, at 3 years after baseline. These findings add to the evidence of CGA’s superiority over usual care in outpatient settings. As CGA-based care leads to important positive outcomes, this method should be used more extensively in the treatment of older people to meet their needs.