Frailty is not a disease, but it profoundly influences disease expression.
Frailty means a person has reduced physiologic reserve resulting in the inability to resist stress and repair injury, and increased vulnerability to even relatively minor changes in circumstances. These changes threaten a person’s health and ability to live independently, and increase the risk of hospital-related complications such as falls, delirium, loss of functional autonomy, prolonged stays, nursing home placement and death (Howlett, Rutenberg & Rockwood, 2021).
A whole system approach is necessary.
Optimizing frailty-informed care/best practices in one segment of the health system in isolation of the rest of the system is futile and creates further fragmentation.
A broad public health and life course approach is needed if early detection and assessment of those living with frailty and those in the early stages of frailty is to predict adverse health outcomes, tailor treatment and care decisions, avoid unnecessary hospitalization and emergency department visits, and lessen substantial costs for health care.
The Nova Scotia population is aging in the short term and people are living longer; however, this longevity does not always equate to years of good health-related quality of life. Older adults who are frail have a higher likelihood of poor health outcomes that include falls, hospitalizations, institutionalization, disability and death.
Current health care systems are not designed to manage the complexity of patient presentation with multimorbidity. Health care providers must pay attention to frailty because it is a measurement of risk in older adults with multiple chronic illnesses.
Better identification and understanding of frailty and how to support older adults to live well with frailty are key challenges for health care systems.
Canadian Institute for Health Information. A profile of hospitalized seniors at risk of frailty in Canada — Infographic. Accessed February 29, 2024.
Canadian Institute for Health Information. A profile of hospitalized seniors at risk of frailty in Canada — Infographic. Accessed February 29, 2024.
Canadian Institute for Health Information. A profile of hospitalized seniors at risk of frailty in Canada — Infographic. Accessed February 29, 2024.
Howlett, S.E., Rutenberg, A.D. & Rockwood, K. (2021). The degree of frailty as a translational measure of health in aging. Nature Aging, 1(8), 651-665. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00099-3
