Frailty Consensus: A Call to Action

Abstract

Frailty is a clinical state in which there is an increase in an individual’s vulnerability for developing increased dependency and/or mortality when exposed to a stressor. Frailty can occur as the result of a range of diseases and medical conditions. A consensus group consisting of delegates from 6 major international, European, and US societies created 4 major consensus points on a specific form of frailty: physical frailty. Physical frailty is an important medical syndrome. The group defined physical frailty as “a medical syndrome with multiple causes and contributors that is characterized by diminished strength, endurance, and reduced physiologic function that increases an individual’s vulnerability for developing increased dependency and/or death.”Physical frailty can potentially be prevented or treated with specific modalities, such as exercise, protein-calorie supplementation, vitamin D, and reduction of polypharmacy.Simple, rapid screening tests have been developed and validated, such as the simple FRAIL scale, to allow physicians to objectively recognize frail persons.For the purposes of optimally managing individuals with physical frailty, all persons older than 70 years and all individuals with significant weight loss (≥5%) due to chronic disease should be screened for frailty.

Older patients' perception of their own capacity to regain pre-fracture function after hip fracture surgery – an explorative qualitative study

“…Frailty is a syndrome characterised by diminished strength, endurance and reduced physiologic function, which increases an individual`s vulnerability and develops increased dependency (Morley et al, 2013). There is a distinction between being frail and feeling frail (Grenier, 2006).…”

Pathophysiology of heart failure and frailty: a common inflammatory origin?

“…Comprehensive scales such as the Fried index, Rockwood index, and Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) are also commonly used (Afilalo et al ., 2009, 2014; Dodson & Chaudhry, 2012; Flint et al ., 2012; Morley et al ., 2013), described in detail elsewhere (Fried et al . 2001; Morley et al ., 2013; Chamberlain et al ., 2016). Together, these serve to limit mobility, independence, and the ability to perform activities of daily living in older adults (Chamberlain et al ., 2016).…”

Mediterranean Diet attenuates risk of frailty and sarcopenia: New insights and future directions

“…A number of consensus groups have established operational definitions and diagnostic criterion cutoffs for the sarcopenic phenotype to include measures of physical performance and grip strength in addition with low SMM [3,4,26,[28][29][30]. Frailty however is a multidimensional syndrome associated with diminished strength, endurance and reduced physiological functioning increasing an individual's vulnerability to stressors and increasing the risk of adverse health outcomes, including mortality [31][32][33][34]. Akin to sarcopenia, different diagnostic criteria have been validated to identify frail older adults which mainly refer to two conceptual models: the frailty index proposed by Rockwood et al [35] and the physical frailty phenotype proposed by Fried et al [36].…”