Frailty in the Elderly

Frailty in the Elderly Frailty is a physiological syndrome, which is characterized clinically by decreased reserve and diminished resistance to stressors, which has resulted from cumulative decline across multiple physiological systems during ageing. It places older people at risk for death and other adverse health outcomes. Many of the outcomes that are associated with frailty are fractures, hospitalization, and a new onset or a worsening of a previous diminished capacity to perform various activities of daily living. Fried and coworkers, in 2001, used data from over 5,000 men and women aged 65 years or older, who had been recruited between 1989 and 1990 into a cardiovascular health study, to suggest that although frailty had previously been considered to be synonymous with disability, comorbidity, and other clinical characteristics, it must also be recognized to have a biologic basis and to be a distinct clinical syndrome. They characterized the clinical syndrome of frailty when three or more of the following criteria were present: greater than 10 lb or 4.5 kg unintentional weight loss in the previous year, self-reported exhaustion, slow walking speed, low physical activity, and weakness, as measured by grip strength. A prevalence of approximately 7% was found in their community-dwelling population, which increased with age and was also more common in women than in men.