Medication-related criteria in frailty assessment tools: a narrative review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To review medication-related criteria within validated frailty tools. METHODS: Narrative review of validated frailty assessment tools. Frailty tools were identified from recently published reviews; each tool was reviewed to determine whether any medication-related criteria were included and how these criteria contributed to the scoring/assessment of frailty. RESULTS: Eight out of 16 validated frailty tools included medication-related criteria. The majority of criteria were a numerical cut-off of number of medications taken; however, the specific cut-off was not consistent. CONCLUSION: Inclusion of medication-related criteria in frailty tools is highly variable. Future research is required to determine whether incorporation of medication use into frailty assessment can impact outcomes in terms of frailty prevention and treatment.