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Measurement of Frailty

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Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging

Synonyms

Deficit accumulation; Frailty assessment; Frailty index; Frailty indicator(s); Frailty instruments; Frailty measurement; Frailty measures; Frailty phenotype; Frailty scale(s); Frailty screening; Frailty tools; Phenotype of frailty; Vulnerability measures

Definition

Frailty describes people with increased vulnerability and poorer health status compared to others of the same chronological age. Measurement of frailty is to quantify this difference in reliable and reproducible way through the development of frailty instruments. Measurement of frailty enables researchers and clinicians to work towards an understanding the biological basis of frailty; to diagnose frailty and therefore plan care including comprehensive geriatric assessment; to measure outcomes; and to enable risk stratification.

Overview

Frailty describes people with increased vulnerability and poorer health status compared to others of the same chronological age. For many years, frailty was diagnosed using clinical...

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Correspondence to Aisling M. Fleury .

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Fleury, A.M., Hubbard, R.E. (2020). Measurement of Frailty. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_357-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_357-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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