Frailty In Older Adults

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The consequences of frailty, a condition associated with age-related declines and other comorbidities, can have an enormous impact on aging lifespan health for many decades. Early detection of frailty is beneficial in gerontology care for risk stratification, treatment decision-making, and surgical planning in the older population. The consequence of frailty in older adults is not only increased risk of adverse health outcomes, but also higher rates of institutionalization, morbidity, postoperative complications, and mortality. Therefore, it is logical that as the aging population increases globally, escalating care burden of frail older adults might significantly affect either direct or indirect health-care costs. In order to prevent negative …show more content…
Several conceptual models identify the characteristics of frailty. Various assessment instruments have also been developed and are widely used to assess for frail status. Nevertheless, the existing frailty instruments do not have a single gold standard for clinical frailty assessment. In clinical settings, however, frailty misclassification may arise because of multiple factors. Current evidence shows that the individual factors and individual behavior factors– intrinsic factors–may lead to the different rate of both progression and severity of frailty. In addition, the clinical presentation of especially in musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions overlaps significantly with frailty’s characteristics. Consequently, the predominant characteristics of MSK conditions may cause frailty misclassification. Also, applying frailty instrument is rather more challenging in the busy clinical settings. The Reported Edmonton Frailty Scale (REFS) have the edge than other instruments in clinically screening frailty regarding simple, rapid, inexpensive, safe, and precise without geriatric training. In busy clinics, the practical frailty assessment instruments should not only apply the tool in clinical settings appropriately, but also identify frailty precisely. Thus, evaluation and accurate detection of frailty in clinical

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