Frailty of the socially vulnerable elderly

To identify the relationship between frailty, sociodemographic characteristics, and social vulnerability of the elderly enrolled in a primary care service. This was an exploratory, comparative, and cross-sectional study with a quantitative research approach performed with 247 elderly people enrolled in a primary care service, in a city in the interior of Sao Paulo. A questionnaire was used for socio-demographic characterization of the participants, and the Edmonton Frail Scale was used to evaluate frailty. Vulnerability was classified according to the Paulista Index of Social Vulnerability. Data were analyzed in a descriptive and inferential manner. All ethical recommendations were met. There was a prevalence of frail elderly women, with a mean age of 68.5 (SD=7.3) years, low education, who were retirees. There was a statistically significant difference between frailty and the number of diseases reported (p