Frailty in Older Adults

Abstract

Key Points

Frailty in Older Adults

Assessing frailty enables clinicians to predict the outcomes and risks of health conditions, target the delivery of evidence-based interventions, and tailor clinical management, including decisions about stressful treatments.

Frailty assessment should be used not as a convenient way to withhold potentially effective treatments but rather as a tool to facilitate patient-centered care.

Management should be aimed at increasing physiological reserve in order to build robustness and resilience and prevent or mitigate stressors.

The interventions that have proved to be efficacious in clinical trials (e.g., exercise, nutritional supplementation, and a comprehensive geriatric assessment) have not consistently shown similar effectiveness in routine care, which indicates implementation challenges.

The benefit of routine frailty screening has been shown in high-risk clinical contexts (e.g., oncology and surgery); its benefit in primary care remains to be established.