Frailty is a geriatric syndrome characterized by impaired performance and reduced
functional reserve across multiple physiologic systems, and associated with increased
vulnerability to adverse health outcomes from stressor events.
1
,
2
It has gained increased attention in clinical medicine and health policy largely
because of its high prevalence at advanced age and predictive capacity for negative
outcomes (including falls, fractures, increased dependency in activities of daily
living, hospitalizations, nursing home placement, and death).
3
,
4
,
5
,
6
,
7
,
8
,
9
,
10
This issue of JAMDA features 6 original research studies that illustrate the range
of research currently being conducted on frailty, the variety of ways that the concept
is measured, and the persistence of certain challenges to our conceptualization, definition,
and understanding of this important geriatric syndrome.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of the American Medical Directors AssociationAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Frailty consensus: A call to action.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2013; 14: 392-397
- Burden of frailty in the elderly population: Perspectives for a public health challenge.Arch Public Health. 2015; 73: 19
- Frailty: An Emerging Public Health Priority.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2016; 17: 188-192
- Frailty in elderly people.Lancet. 2013; 381: 752-762
- Prevalence of frailty in middle-aged and older community-dwelling Europeans living in 10 countries.J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2009; 64: 675-681
- Prevalence, attributes, and outcomes of fitness and frailty in community-dwelling older adults: Report from the Canadian study of health and aging.J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2004; 59: 1310-1317
- Phenotype of frailty: Characterization in the women’s health and aging studies.J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2006; 61: 262-266
- Comparison of 2 frailty indexes for prediction of falls, disability, fractures, and death in older women.Arch Intern Med. 2008; 168: 382-389
- The Asia-Pacific Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Frailty.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2017; 18: 564-575
- Frailty and the prediction of negative health outcomes: A meta-analysis.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2016; 17: 1163.e1-1163.e17
- Frailty in older adults: Evidence for a phenotype.J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2001; 56: M146-M156
- Frailty and sarcopenia: From theory to clinical implementation and public health relevance.Eur J Intern Med. 2016; 35: 1-9
- Relationship between sarcopenia and frailty in the Toledo Study of Healthy Aging: A population based cross-sectional study.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018; 19: 282-286
- Joint trajectories of cognition and frailty and associated burden of patient-reported outcomes.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018; 19: 304-309
- Accumulation of deficits as a proxy measure of aging.Sci World J. 2001; 1: 323-336
- Physical frailty and cognitive functioning in depressed older adults: Findings from the NESDO Study.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2016; 17: 36-43
- Cognitive impairment improves the predictive validity of the phenotype of frailty for adverse health outcomes: The three-city study.J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009; 57: 453-461
- An Easy assessment of frailty at baseline independently predicts prognosis in very elderly patients with acute coronary syndromes.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018; 19: 296-303
- Assessment and treatment of elderly patients with cancer.Surg Oncol. 2010; 19: 117-123
- The geriatric management of frailty as paradigm of “The end of the disease era.”.Eur J Intern Med. 2016; 31: 11-14
- Surgical palliative care consultations over time in relationship to system wide frailty screening.JAMA Surg. 2014; 149: 1121-1126
- Comparison of 3 frailty instruments in a geriatric acute care setting in a low-middle income country.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018; 19: 310-314
- Frailty: Toward a clinical definition.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2008; 9: 71-72
- The prevalence and correlates of frailty in urban and rural populations in Latin America, China, and India: A 10/66 population-based survey.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018; 19: 287-295
- The protocols for the 10/66 dementia research group population-based research programme.BMC Public Health. 2007; 7: 165
- It's not a small world after all.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018; 19: 187-189
- Adherence to Mediterranean diet and frailty.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018; 19: 315-322
- Frailty in relation to the accumulation of deficits.J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2007; 62: 722-727
- The frailty phenotype and the frailty index: Different instruments for different purposes.Age Ageing. 2014; 43: 10-12
- Brand new medicine for an older society.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2016; 17: 558-559
Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 08, 2018
Footnotes
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
