The concept of frailty as a health dimension in old age is recent and has its origin in the development of geriatric medicine. Initially an unformulated clinical intuition, it is now defined by a diminished physiological reserve of multiple organs that exposes older individuals to increased vulnerability to stressors and a higher risk of adverse outcomes. The operational definition of frailty, ...

BACKGROUND Frailty is associated with morbidity and premature mortality among elderly HIV-uninfected adults, but the determinants and consequences of frailty in HIV-infected populations remain unclear. We evaluated the correlates of frailty, and the impact of frailty on mortality in a cohort of aging injection drug users (IDUs). METHODS Frailty was assessed using standard criteria among HIV-i...

BACKGROUND Advanced glycation endproducts are biologically active compounds that accumulate in disordered metabolism and normal aging. Carboxymethyl-lysine (CML), a ubiquitous human advanced glycation endproduct, has been associated with age-related conditions and mortality. Our objective was to ascertain the relationship between CML and geriatric outcomes (disability and frailty) in a large co...

BACKGROUND Injuries are often recurrent, with subsequent injuries influenced by previous occurrences and hence correlation between events needs to be taken into account when analysing such data. OBJECTIVE This paper compares five different survival models (Cox proportional hazards (CoxPH) model and the following generalisations to recurrent event data: Andersen-Gill (A-G), frailty, Wei-Lin-We...

In the analysis of lifetime data, heterogeneity may be present in many situations. This heterogeneity is also referred to as frailty. Analysis that ignore frailty when it is present leads to incorrect inferences. In lifetime analysis, Cox proportional hazards model is commonly used to measure the effects of covariates. The covariates may fail to fully account for the true differences in risk. T...

Frailty is a relatively young area of investigation in cardiovascular research. The first wave of published research, circa 2001 to 2006, uncovered the epidemiological and pathophysiological links between frailty and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Compared to those without CVD, older adults with CVD were reported to have an odds ratio of 2.7 to 4.1 for prevalent frailty in cross-sectional studie...

We aimed to determine whether frailty, a validated geriatric construct of increased vulnerability to physiologic stressors, predicts mortality in liver transplant candidates. Consecutive adult outpatients listed for liver transplant with laboratory Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) ≥ 12 at a single center (97% recruitment rate) underwent four frailty assessments: Fried Frailty, Short Phy...

Clinicians and researchers have shown increasing interest in frailty. Yet, there is still considerable uncertainty regarding the concept and its definition. In this article, we present perspectives on key issues and controversies discussed by scientists from 13 different countries, representing a diverse range of disciplines, at the 2006 Second International Working Meeting on Frailty and Aging...

Models of human mortality include a factor that summarises intrinsic differences in individual rates of ageing, commonly called frailty. Frailty also describes a clinical syndrome of apparent vulnerability. In a representative, cross-sectional, Canadian survey (n = 66,589) we calculated a frailty index as the mean accumulation of deficits and previously showed it to increase exponentially with ...

Frailty is a state of late life decline and vulnerability, typified by physical weakness and decreased physiologic reserve. The epidemiology and pathophysiology of frailty share features with those of cardiovascular disease. Gait speed can be used as a measure of frailty and is a powerful predictor of mortality. Advancing age is a potent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and has been assoc...