Unobserved population heterogeneity and its impact on life-table estimates motivated the introduction of frailty models three decades ago. The concept of latent individual differences repeatedly proved useful in applications and led to important insights, in demography and beyond. This talk reviews the influence that the seminal paper by Vaupel et al. had on demographic research in general and ...

BACKGROUND Inflammatory biomarkers have shown consistent associations with disability and frailty in older adults. Statin medications may reduce the incidence the frailty because of their anti-inflammatory effects. This study examines associations between current use, duration, and potency of statin medications and incident frailty in initially nonfrail women 65 years old or older. METHODS Th...

Frailty is a distinctive late-life health state in which apparently minor stressor events are associated with adverse health outcomes. This article considers how the conceptualisation of frailty as a long-term condition offers new management approaches based on systematically applied preventative and proactive interventions. Frailty shares the key features of the common long-term conditions: it...

BACKGROUND There is evidence that the personality traits conscientiousness, extraversion and neuroticism are associated with health behaviours and with risk of various health outcomes. We hypothesised that people who are lower in conscientiousness or extraversion or higher in neuroticism may be at greater risk of frailty in later life. METHODS We used general linear models to examine the pros...

INTRODUCTION To examine the impact of frailty on medical and social care utilisation among the Irish community-dwelling older population to inform strategies of integrated care for older people with complex needs. METHODS Participants aged ≥65 years from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) representative of the Irish community-dwelling older population were analysed (n = 3507). The...

BACKGROUND There is little certainty as to the prevalence of frailty in Canadians in younger adulthood. This study examines and compares the prevalence of frailty in Canadians 18-79 years old using the Accumulation of Deficits and Fried models of frailty. METHODS The Canadian Health Measures Study data were used to estimate the prevalence of frailty in adults 18-79 years old. A 23-item Frailt...

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BACKGROUND Although population-based studies have shown frailty predicted future falls, their follow-up periods were one year or longer and short-term fall risks associated with frailty are unknown. METHODS A prospective cohort study nested within a randomised controlled trial was conducted to examine associations between frailty and short-term incident future falls among community-dwelling o...