BACKGROUND Little is known about the natural course of frailty. We performed a prospective study to determine the transition rates between frailty states and to evaluate the effect of the preceding frailty state on subsequent frailty transitions. METHODS We studied 754 community-living persons, aged 70 years or older, who were nondisabled in 4 essential activities of daily living. Frailty, as...

BACKGROUND The relationship between frailty and gait characteristics other than velocity has received little attention. Gait variability quantifies the automaticity of gait with greater variability usually indicating an irregular and unstable gait. High gait variability reflects the loss of gait regulation and predicts mobility decline and falls, which may reveal systemic vulnerability. Thus, w...

BACKGROUND Accompanying the unprecedented growth in the older adult population worldwide is an increase in the prevalence of frailty, an age-related clinical state of increased vulnerability to stressor events. This increased vulnerability results in lower social engagement and quality of life, increased dependency, and higher rates of morbidity, health service utilization and mortality. Early ...

The ethical, logistical, and biological complications of working with an older population of people inherently limits clinical studies of frailty. The recent development of animal models of frailty, and tools for assessing frailty in animal models provides an invaluable opportunity for frailty research. This review summarizes currently published animal models of frailty including the interleuki...

Frailty and malnutrition are both highly prevalent in the older populations. Frailty has multifactorial origin, and is regarded as a fundamental risk factor for deteriorating health status and disability in elder people. It is estimated that prevalence rates for frailty and pre-frail reach as high as 27% and 51%, respectively. The nutritional deficiency is a key to the development of frailty, a...

This review article summarizes how frailty can be considered in relation to deficit accumulation. Recalling that frailty is an age-associated, nonspecific vulnerability, we consider symptoms, signs, diseases, and disabilities as deficits, which are combined in a frailty index. An individual's frailty index score reflects the proportion of potential deficits present in that person, and indicates...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of measuring frailty in patients with cardiac implantable electrical devices while validating the physiologic significance of device-detected physical activity by evaluating its association with frailty and mobility. METHODS AND RESULTS Outpatients with cardiac implantable electrical devices compatible with physical activity analysis ...

BACKGROUND Frailty is a state of vulnerability to poor resolution of homeostasis following a stressor event, such as chemotherapy or cancer surgery. Better knowledge of the epidemiology of frailty could help drive a global cancer care strategy for older people. The aim of this review was to establish the prevalence and outcomes of frailty and pre-frailty in older cancer patients. METHODS Obse...

OBJECTIVE To help family physicians better recognize frailty and its implications for managing elderly patients. SOURCES OF INFORMATION PubMed-MEDLINE was searched from 1990 to 2013. The search was restricted to English-language articles using the following groups of MeSH headings and key words: frail elderly, frail, frailty; aged, geriatrics, geriatric assessment, health services for the age...

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate psychosocial variables associated with frailty status. Moreover, gender differences in the psychosocial variables associated with frailty were examined. Methods: This cross-sectional study examined a community-dwelling sample of N = 210 older adults (M = 75.31 years). Frailty was measured with the Tilburg Frailty Indicator. Quality of life, d...