In a new study, researchers found that frailty is not simply an adjective associated with old age, it is a medical condition all on its own.
It is the first global study to estimate the likelihood of community-dwelling older adults developing frailty.
The research was led by a team at Monash University in Australia.
In the study, the team examined the incidence of frailty in 120,000 people over the age of 60 in 28 countries.
They looked at 46 studies of more than 120,000 people across 28 countries and found in people over 60s, 4.3% will develop frailty per year.
The results also showed that women were more likely than men to develop frailty.
They suggest frailty is a condition that meets three out of the following five criteria:
low physical activity
weak grip strength
low energy
slow walking speed
non-deliberate weight loss
Frailty is linked to a lower quality of life and a higher risk of death, hospitalization.
The condition tends to occur among older adults, but even young people can be frail if they have one or more disabling chronic diseases.
The team says as more than 20% of the world’s population will be aged over 60 years by 2050, the number of people diagnosed with frailty is projected to increase.
The results suggest that the risk of developing frailty in older people is high.
This is a worldwide problem and highlights a major challenge facing countries with aging populations.
The team also says interventions such as muscle strength training and protein supplementation may help to prevent or delay the progression of frailty.
In addition, doctors should do regular screening to assess older people’s vulnerability to developing frailty so that appropriate interventions can be implemented in a timely manner.
The leaders of the study are Dr. Richard Ofori-Asenso and Professor Danny Liew from the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open.
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