How common is frailty in older Australians?

Abstract

Aim: To determine the prevalence of frailty in a cohort of older Australians. Methods: Frailty status of the 2087 participants of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing 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.