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Drugs & Aging
Published in: Drugs & Aging 4/2000

01-10-2000 | Review Article

Conceptualisation and Measurement of Frailty in Elderly People

Authors: Professor Kenneth Rockwood, David B. Hogan, Chris MacKnight

Published in: Drugs & Aging | Issue 4/2000

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Abstract

The use of the term ‘frailty’ has shown tremendous growth in the last 15 years, but this has not been accompanied by a widely accepted definition, let alone agreed-upon measures. In this paper, we review approaches to the definition and measurement of frailty and discuss the relationship between frailty, aging and disability. Two trends are evident in definitions, which often trade off comprehensiveness for precision: frailty can be seen as being synonymous with a single-system problem or as a multisystem problem. The essential feature of frailty is the notion of risk due to instability (itself suggesting a balance of many factors), and has been only poorly measured to date. Future models of frailty should incorporate more precise operationalisation of the probability of frailty and better explain the relationship between disease, disability and frailty.
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Metadata
Title
Conceptualisation and Measurement of Frailty in Elderly People
Authors
Professor Kenneth Rockwood
David B. Hogan
Chris MacKnight
Publication date
01-10-2000
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Published in
Drugs & Aging / Issue 4/2000
Print ISSN: 1170-229X
Electronic ISSN: 1179-1969
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2165/00002512-200017040-00005

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