Introduction
There are many different conceptual definitions of frailty in circulation. Most of
these definitions focus mainly on physical problems affecting older people. Only a
few also draw attention to other domains of human functioning such as the psychological
domain. The authors of this article fear that this could lead to fragmentation of
care for frail older people. The aim is to develop an integral conceptual definition
of frailty that starts from the premise of a holistic view of the person.
Methods
To achieve this, a literature search was carried out. Thereafter a group of experts
(N=20) were consulted, both verbally during 2 expert meetings and via a written questionnaire.
These experts were asked which existing conceptual definition of frailty places most
stress on the integral functioning of older people.
Results
The experts expressed a clear preference for one of the conceptual definitions. The
result of the literature search and the consultation with the experts led to a new
integral conceptual definition of frailty.
Conclusion
The conceptual definition is intended to offer a framework for an operational definition
of frailty for identifying frail older people.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 25, 2010
Footnotes
The authors have no conflicts of interest and no financial support regarding this article.
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 American Medical Directors Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
