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ImportanceFrailty has been recognized as a risk factor for mortality after liver transplant (LT) but little is known of its association with functional status and health-related quality of life (HRQL), termed global functional health, in LT recipients.ObjectiveTo evaluate the association between pre-LT and post-LT frailty with post-LT global functional health.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis prospective cohort study was conducted at 8 US LT centers and included adults who underwent LT from October 2016 to February 2020.ExposuresFrail was defined by a pre-LT Liver Frailty Index (LFI) score of 4.5 or greater.Main Outcomes and MeasuresGlobal functional health at 1 year after LT, assessed using surveys (Short Form-36 [SF-36; summarized by physical component scores (PFC) and mental component summary scores (MCS)], Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale) and performance-based tests (LFI, Fried Frailty Phenotype, and Short Physical Performance Battery).ResultsOf 358 LT recipients (median [IQR] age, 60 [53-65] years; 115 women [32%]; 25 [7%] Asian/Pacific Islander, 21 [6%] Black, 54 [15%] Hispanic White, and 243 [68%] non-Hispanic White individuals), 68 (19%) had frailty pre-LT. At 1 year post-LT, the median (IQR) PCS was lower in recipients who had frailty vs those without frailty pre-LT (42 [31-53] vs 50 [38-56]; P = .002), but the median MCS was similar. In multivariable regression, pre-LT frailty was associated with a −5.3-unit lower post-LT PCS (P P P = .01).Conclusions and RelevanceIn this cohort study, pre-LT frailty was associated with worse global functional health 1 year after LT. The presence of frailty after LT was also associated with worse HRQL in physical, but not mental, subdomains. These data suggest that interventions and therapeutics that target frailty that are administered before and/or early post-LT may help to improve the health and well-being of LT recipients.

Importance Female liver transplant candidates experience higher rates of wait list mortality than male candidates. Frailty is a critical determinant of mortality in patients with cirrhosis, but how frailty differs between women and men is unknown. Objective To determine whether frailty is associated with the gap between women and men in mortality among patients with cirrhosis awaiting liver transplantation. Design, Setting, and Participants This prospective cohort study enrolled 1405 adults with cirrhosis awaiting liver transplant without hepatocellular carcinoma seen during 3436 ambulatory clinic visits at 9 US liver transplant centers. Data were collected from January 1, 2012, to October 1, 2019, and analyzed from August 30, 2019, to October 30, 2020. Exposures At outpatient evaluation, the Liver Frailty Index (LFI) score was calculated (grip strength, chair stands, and balance). Main Outcomes and Measures The risk of wait list mortality was quantified using Cox proportional hazards regression by frailty. Mediation analysis was used to quantify the contribution of frailty to the gap in wait list mortality between women and men. Results Of 1405 participants, 578 (41%) were women and 827 (59%) were men (median age, 58 [interquartile range (IQR), 50-63] years). Women and men had similar median scores on the laboratory-based Model for End-stage Liver Disease incorporating sodium levels (MELDNa) (women, 18 [IQR, 14-23]; men, 18 [IQR, 15-22]), but baseline LFI was higher in women (mean [SD], 4.12 [0.85] vs 4.00 [0.82]; P = .005). Women displayed worse balance of less than 30 seconds (145 [25%] vs 149 [18%]; P = .003), worse sex-adjusted grip (mean [SD], -0.31 [1.08] vs -0.16 [1.08] kg; P = .01), and fewer chair stands per second (median, 0.35 [IQR, 0.23-0.46] vs 0.37 [IQR, 0.25-0.49]; P = .04). In unadjusted mixed-effects models, LFI was 0.15 (95% CI, 0.06-0.23) units higher in women than men (P = .001). After adjustment for other variables associated with frailty, LFI was 0.16 (95% CI, 0.08-0.23) units higher in women than men (P

Most clinicians recognize a variant of this story from their clinical practice. A test is ordered for appropriate indications, but provides information about an unrelated condition, leaving the physician and patient to contend with information they had not sought but which, nevertheless, they find impossible to ignore. We contend that patients would be better served if the medical profession adopted simple interventions to limit physicians’ access to unsolicited diagnostic information. In this article we discuss how this information can end up harming patients, and suggest steps the health system could take to reduce the availability of such information.