Abstract: Objective To explore the association of care partner-frailty index-comprehensive geriatric assessment (CP-FI-CGA)and unplanned readmission (UR) in the elderly patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods A total of 200 elderly CHD patients admitted to Department of Geriatrics, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital without planned admission from January 2021 to June 2023 were enrolled. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect the general information. CP-FI-CGA was used for frailty assessment, and the study subjects were divided into non-frailty group (NF group), pre-frailty group (PF group) and frailty group (F group) based on CP-FI-CGA. All patients were prospectively followed up, and the end event was defined as UR due to any reason. Results Among the 200 patients,39 patients (19.5%) showed frailty, 62 patients (31.0%) showed pre-frailty, and 99 patients (49.5%) showed non-frailty. There were 22 cases, 17 cases, and 20 cases of UR in F group, PF group and NF group, respectively. Kaplan-Meier curves revealed median UR-free survival times of 2.9 (2.0-4.0) months, 4.0 (2.4-4.7) months, and 4.0 (3.0-4.6) months in F group, PF group, and NF group, respectively. The 6-month UR-free survival rate was 43.6%, 72.6% and 79.8%, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in the UR-free survival curves among the three groups (χ²=25.213, P<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that frailty was an independent risk factor for UR. Conclusions Frailty assessed by CP-FI-CGA is an independent risk factor for UR in the elderly patients with CHD, which provides a basis for screening high-risk individuals and developing targeted intervention.

Key words: coronary heart disease, aged, unplanned readmission, comprehensive geriatric assessment, frailty index