Psychological Resilience Measured by the Brief Resilience Scale and Its Association With Rapid Geriatric Assessment Domains and Hospital Stay in Older Adults

BACKGROUND Psychological resilience is increasingly recognised as a critical factor influencing health outcomes in older adults. Rapid geriatric assessment (RGA) is a practical tool for screening common geriatric syndromes. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between psychological resilience, assessed by the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) and RGA domains, as well as length of hospital stay (LOS) among older inpatients.

METHODS In this cross-sectional study, inpatients ≥ 60 years were assessed using the RGA tool (frailty, sarcopenia, malnutrition, cognitive impairment), BRS and LOS. Associations between BRS scores and RGA domains and LOS were analysed using regression models.

RESULTS Among 176 participants, 24.4% (43 participants) were classified as having low psychological resilience. Patients with low resilience were notably older and had a higher number of diseases (p-values 0.004, 0.001, respectively). No relationship was observed between psychological resilience and LOS (p > 0.05). There was a significant difference in BRS scores across the number of impaired RGA domain groups (p < 0.001), while no significant difference was found for LOS. Patients with impairments in all four RGA domains had the lowest BRS scores. All domains of RGA were significantly associated with low resilience in linear and binary logistic regressions in univariate analysis (p < 0.001). In multivariate logistic regression, dementia (OR = 4.70; 95% CI: 1.99-11.09; p < 0.001) and malnutrition (OR = 2.92; 95% CI: 1.14-7.48; p = 0.025) significantly increased the odds of low psychological resilience.

CONCLUSION Psychological resilience was inversely associated with cumulative geriatric syndromes. Although causality cannot be inferred, these findings suggest that dementia and malnutrition may be particularly linked to lower resilience. Greater integration of resilience assessment into inpatient care may support more holistic treatment strategies.