Abstract One of the leading causes of morbidity and premature mortality in older people is frailty. Frailty occurs when multiple physiological systems decline, to the extent that an individual's ...cellular repair mechanisms cannot maintain system homeostasis. This review gives an overview of the definitions and measurement of frailty in research and clinical practice, including: Fried's frailty phenotype; Rockwood and Mitnitski's Frailty Index (FI); the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) Index; Edmonton Frailty Scale (EFS); the Fatigue, Resistance, Ambulation, Illness and Loss of weight (FRAIL) Index; Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS); the Multidimensional Prognostic Index (MPI); Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI); PRISMA-7; Groningen Frailty Indicator (GFI), Sherbrooke Postal Questionnaire (SPQ); the Gérontopôle Frailty Screening Tool (GFST) and the Kihon Checklist (KCL), among others. We summarise the main strengths and limitations of existing frailty measurements, and examine how well these measurements operationalise frailty according to Clegg's guidelines for frailty classification — that is: their accuracy in identifying frailty; their basis on biological causative theory; and their ability to reliably predict patient outcomes and response to potential therapies.
Frailty is an emerging global health burden, with major implications for clinical practice and public health. The prevalence of frailty is expected to rise alongside rapid growth in the ageing ...population. The course of frailty is characterised by a decline in functioning across multiple physiological systems, accompanied by an increased vulnerability to stressors. Having frailty places a person at increased risk of adverse outcomes, including falls, hospitalisation, and mortality. Studies have shown a clear pattern of increased health-care costs and use associated with frailty. All older adults are at risk of developing frailty, although risk levels are substantially higher among those with comorbidities, low socioeconomic position, poor diet, and sedentary lifestyles. Lifestyle and clinical risk factors are potentially modifiable by specific interventions and preventive actions. The concept of frailty is increasingly being used in primary, acute, and specialist care. However, despite efforts over the past three decades, agreement on a standard instrument to identify frailty has not yet been achieved. In this Series paper, we provide an overview of the global impact and burden of frailty, the usefulness of the frailty concept in clinical practice, potential targets for frailty prevention, and directions that need to be explored in the future.
Integrated care programs have been developed to enhance the quality care for older adults in primary care. These programs usually consist of a multidisciplinary approach, with personalised care based ...on comprehensive geriatric assessments. However, there is limited evidence for the effectiveness of these programs in frail older people. In this article, we review the results of three recent intervention studies carried out as part of the Dutch National Care for the Elderly Programme. The results illustrate how difficult it is to improve outcomes in community-dwelling frail older adults by means of integrated care. Furthermore, we discuss the implications of these studies for future research into frailty interventions.
Malnutrition in older adults Dent, Elsa; Wright, Olivia R L; Woo, Jean ...
The Lancet (British edition),
03/2023, Letnik:
401, Številka:
10380
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Malnutrition is a highly prevalent condition in older adults, and poses a substantial burden on health, social, and aged-care systems. Older adults are vulnerable to malnutrition due to age-related ...physiological decline, reduced access to nutritious food, and comorbidity. Clinical guidelines recommend routine screening for malnutrition in all older adults, together with nutritional assessment and individually tailored nutritional support for older adults with a positive screening test. Nutritional support includes offering individualised nutritional advice and counselling; oral nutritional supplements; fortified foods; and enteral or parenteral nutrition as required. However, in clinical practice, the incorporation of nutritional guidelines is inadequate and low-value care is commonplace. This Review discusses the current evidence on identification and treatment of malnutrition in older adults, identifies gaps between evidence and practice in clinical care, and offers practical strategies to translate evidence-based knowledge into improved nutritional care. We also provide an overview of the prevalence, causes, and risk factors of malnutrition in older adults across health-care settings.
Competing events are often ignored in epidemiological studies. Conventional methods for the analysis of survival data assume independent or noninformative censoring, which is violated when subjects ...that experience a competing event are censored. Because many survival studies do not apply competing risk analysis, we explain and illustrate in a nonmathematical way how to analyze and interpret survival data in the presence of competing events.
Using data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, both marginal analyses (Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional-hazards regression) and competing risk analyses (cumulative incidence function CIF, cause-specific and subdistribution hazard regression) were performed. We analyzed the association between sex and depressive symptoms, in which death before the onset of depression was a competing event.
The Kaplan–Meier method overestimated the cumulative incidence of depressive symptoms. Instead, the CIF should be used. As the subdistribution hazard model has a one-to-one relation with the CIF, it is recommended for prediction research, whereas the cause-specific hazard model is recommended for etiologic research.
When competing risks are present, the type of research question guides the choice of the analytical model to be used. In any case, results should be presented for all event types.
Frailty increases the risk of adverse outcomes in older people. The impact of psychosocial factors on frailty and adverse clinical outcomes associated with frailty has not yet been examined in the ...hospital setting. The aims of this study were to: i) investigate the association between psychosocial factors and frailty, and ii) to establish whether psychosocial factors impact on the association between frailty and adverse outcomes.
Data was collected from a Geriatric Evaluation and Management Unit (GEMU) in Australia. Frailty was identified using Fried's frailty criteria. Psychosocial factors included wellbeing, sense of control (mastery), social activities, home/neighbourhood satisfaction, social relationships, anxiety and depression. Outcome measures were: mortality at 12 months, long length of GEMU stay (LOS), 1-month emergency rehospitalisation, and a higher level of care needed on discharge. Covariates adjusted for were age, gender and comorbidity.
The mean (SD) age of participants (n = 172) at admission was 85.2 (6.4) years, with 129 (75%) female patients. 96 (56%) patients were classified as frail, with 64 (37%) pre-frail and 12 (7%) robust. Frail patients had an increased likelihood of 12-month mortality (HR, 95% CI = 3.16, 1.36-7.33), discharge to a higher level of care (OR, 95% CI = 2.40, 1.21-4.78), long LOS (OR, 95% CI = 2.04, 1.07-3.88) and 1-month emergency rehospitalisation (OR, 95% CI = 2.53, 1.10-5.82). Psychosocial factors associated with frailty included poor wellbeing, anxiety, depression, and a low sense of control. Several psychosocial factors increased the likelihood of adverse outcomes associated with frailty, including anxiety and low ratings for: wellbeing, sense of control, social activities and home/neighbourhood satisfaction.
Our results indicate that frail older adults with low psychosocial resources had an elevated risk of mortality, discharge to higher level care, long LOS and rehospitalisation. Consideration of psychosocial factors in comprehensive geriatric assessments will assist in patient care planning.
Abstract
In 2015, the World Health Organisation (WHO) introduced the concept of intrinsic capacity (IC) as part of a new public health model for healthy ageing. IC refers to the overall combination ...of an individual’s physical and mental capacities, and is promoted as a new positive approach to the health and wellbeing of older adults. However, there is still insufficient evidence that implementing IC leads to better care for older adults. Moreover, the current operationalisations of IC lead to confusion and redundant research. In this commentary, we discuss whether the concept of IC has added value for geriatrics, and describe the main issues related to its conceptualisation, measurement, and application. We argue that there is a need to clarify and validate the concept of IC, including independent evidence regarding its feasibility and acceptance in clinical practice.
Abstract
Background
It is unclear whether frailty index (FI) change captures mortality risk better than and independently of the current FI level, i.e. whether a regular FI assessment among older ...adults provides additional insights for mortality risk stratification or not.
Methods
We used data from the LASA 75-PLUS-study, which monitored health among 508 older adults (75+) between 2016 and 2019 every 9 months. Joint models for longitudinal and time-to-event data were used to assess the impact of both current FI and within-person FI change during the last year on mortality risk.
Results
Twenty percent of the participants died during 4.5 years of follow-up. Adding within-person FI change to the current FI model improved model fit and it showed that FI increases during the last year were associated with an increase in mortality risk. Consequently, the effect of the current FI decreased considerably and became statistically non-significant.
Conclusions
The rate of FI change was more important than the current FI level for short-term mortality prediction among the oldest old, which highlights the benefits of regular frailty assessments.
Abstract
Background
Baseline frailty index (FI) values have been shown to predict mortality among older adults, but little is known about the effects of changes in FI on mortality.
Methods
In a ...coordinated approach, we analyzed data from 4 population-based cohorts: the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing (ELSA), and the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), comprising a total of 24 961 respondents (65+), 95 897 observations, up to 9 repeated FI assessments, and up to 23 years of mortality follow-up. The effect of time-varying FI on mortality was modeled with joint regression models for longitudinal and time-to-event data.
Results
Differences (of 0.01) in current FI levels (hazard ratio HR = 1.04, 95% credible interval CI = 1.03–1.05) and baseline FI levels (HR = 1.03, 95% CI = 1.03–1.05) were consistently associated with mortality across studies. Importantly, individuals with steeper FI growth also had a higher mortality risk: An increase in annual FI growth by 0.01 was associated with an increased mortality risk of HR = 1.56 (95% CI = 1.49–1.63) in HRS, HR = 1.24 (95% CI = 1.13–1.35) in SHARE, HR = 1.40 (95% CI = 1.25–1.52) in ELSA, and HR = 1.71 (95% CI = 1.46–2.01) in LASA.
Conclusions
FI changes predicted mortality independently of baseline FI differences. Repeated assessment of frailty and individual’s frailty trajectory could provide a means to anticipate further health deterioration and mortality and could thus support clinical decision making.
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