The Geriatric Patient One Year After Trauma: Palliative Performance Scale Predicts Functional Outcomes

•The Palliative Performance Scale predicts mortality and one year functional outcomes in geriatric trauma patients•Almost half of geriatric trauma patients had a decline in functional status at one year from discharge•The majority of geriatric trauma patients report difficulty with their regular activities and pain at one year from discharge Frailty in trauma has been found to predict poor outcomes after injury including additional in-hospital complications, mortality, and discharge to dependent care. These gross outcome measures are insufficient when discussing long-term recovery as they do not address what is important to patients including functional status and quality of life. The purpose of this study is to determine if the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) predicts mortality and functional status one year after trauma in geriatric patients. Prospective observational study of trauma survivors, age ≥55 years. Patients were stratified by pre-injury PPS high (>70) or low (≤70). Outcomes were functional status at 1 year measured by Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE), Euroqol-5D and SF-36. Adjusted relative risks (aRR) were obtained using modified Poisson regression Follow-up was achieved on 215/301 patients. Mortality was 30% in low PPS group vs 8% in the high PPS group (P