Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Characteristics of older patients undergoing surgery in the UK: SNAP-3, a snapshot observational study
Authors' conclusion
In the UK, one in five older patients undergoing surgery is living with frailty, and almost two-thirds of older patients are living with multimorbidity.
Study context
- Population
- UK patients aged 60 yr and older undergoing surgery, excluding minor procedures (e.g. cataract surgery), during 5 days in March 2022
- Participants
- 7,134 patients · 214 NHS hospitals
- Outcome
- Prevalence of frailty and multimorbidity
Methodological detailssnapshot, multicentre
- Snapshot
- Multicentre
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Living with frailty (Clinical Frailty Score ≥5), 95% CI 18.3-20.1%
19%
Living with multimorbidity (count of ≥2 comorbidities), 95% CI 62.0-64.3%
63.1%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Overlap of frailty and multimorbidity
- Frail patients also living with multimorbidity (1079/1369)
- 78.8%
- Multimorbid patients also living with frailty (1079/3978)
- 27.1%
Operation characteristics
- Elective operations, 95% CI 67.9-70.1%
- 69%
- Day cases, 95% CI 32.7-34.8%
- 34%
- Frail patients less likely to undergo elective and day-case surgery
Characteristics of patients with frailty, multimorbidity or both
- Typically older, lower socioeconomic backgrounds, greater polypharmacy, reduced independence
Age
- Mean (SD 8.1) age, yr
- 72.8
Original publication
Characteristics of older patients undergoing surgery in the UK: SNAP-3, a snapshot observational study. Br J Anaesth. Published 6 January 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →