Premium
How common is frailty in older A ustralians?
Author(s) -
Widagdo Imaina,
Pratt Nicole,
Russell Mary,
Roughead Elizabeth
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/ajag.12184
Subject(s) - frailty index , gerontology , medicine , older people , cohort , ageing , successful aging , psychology
Aim To determine the prevalence of frailty in a cohort of older A ustralians. Methods Frailty status of the 2087 participants of the A ustralian L ongitudinal S tudy of A geing was assessed based on the questionnaire responses at the baseline interview. Frailty status and prevalence were assessed using four measures: two unidimensional measures (the Frailty Phenotype and Simplified Frailty Phenotype) and two multidimensional measures (Frailty Index and Prognostic Frailty Score). Agreement between the four measures was determined. Results The multidimensional measures identified more people as frail (17.5 and 49.4%) than did the unidimensional (2 and 8.8%). There was little agreement between the measures; only 0.5% of the participants were identified as frail by all four measures. Conclusions The apparent prevalence of frailty varied when different measures were used. It is important for clinicians and researchers to be aware that different frailty measures may identify different groups of older people as frail.