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Frailty–a clinical overview

Part of: Bespoke shallow archive Weizmann

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2007

Ahmed F Jaafar ,
Robert Heycock  and
James George
Ahmed F Jaafar*
Affiliation:
Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon-Tyne, UK
Robert Heycock
Affiliation:
South Tyneside General Hospital, South Shields, UK
James George
Affiliation:
Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, UK
*
Address for correspondence: A Jaafar, Elderly Care Department, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 4LP, UK.
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Extract

Frailty as a concept has been around in medical practice for many years but has only relatively recently been established as a medical syndrome. Although frailty is not synonymous with chronological age, it is recognized to be more common as people get older. Frailty is independently associated with increasing dependency, hospital admissions and morbidity and mortality. As populations age, frailty will become more of a challenge to health care systems. It is important that health care professionals, especially geriatricians, are aware of this emerging syndrome and its potential adverse outcomes, as well as measures to reverse and slow its progress. The aim of this review is to discuss the definition, identification and potential treatment options for frailty, most relevant to the practising clinician.

Type
Clinical geriatrics
Information
Reviews in Clinical Gerontology , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , August 2007 , pp. 171 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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