Frailty phenotype and associated nutritional factors in a sample of Portuguese outpatients with heart failure.

Background and aim Frailty phenotype (FP) is very common in heart failure (HF) and both syndromes worsen one another. The aim of this study is to first describe FP in a sample of Portuguese patients with HF, and to analyse its association with nutritional and clinical statuses, namely, muscle mass, obesity and functional class. Methods and results. In this cross-sectional study, a sample of 136 outpatients with HF (24-81 years, 33.8% women) were randomly selected from the appointments' listings of a HF and Transplant clinic in a Portuguese University Hospital. FP was assessed according to Fried et al. Muscle mass was estimated from the mid-upper arm muscle circumference; weight status was assessed using the body mass index; HF functional classes were registered. The association between participants' characteristics and FP categories was analysed using logistic ordinal regression. The frequency of pre-frailty and frailty is 57.4% and 15.4%, respectively. Within frail individuals,...