TAP reading note: Frailty in older adults: evidence for a phenotype

What the study found

Fried and colleagues define a frailty phenotype using weight loss, exhaustion, weak grip, slow gait and low activity, with three or more criteria indicating frailty. Its associations with later death, hospitalisation and functional decline offer an operational framework for vulnerability in older adults; it does not directly measure dynamic recovery after a stressor.

Scope & limitations

5,317 community-dwelling CHS adults aged ≥65 in two recruitment cohorts; frailty prevalence was 6.9%.

Observational design, available cohort variables, some self-report and disease exclusions limit generalisation. Table 7 gives a three-year falls HR of 1.29 (95% CI 1.00–1.68), P=.054; not every endpoint was significant. Sex/body-size-specific thresholds require checking before application.

Population & sample

5,317 community-dwelling CHS adults aged ≥65 in two recruitment cohorts; frailty prevalence was 6.9%.

Exposure or intervention

Five phenotype criteria: one or two indicate an intermediate state, three or more frailty, compared with non-frail participants.

Outcomes

Three-year adjusted HRs: mortality 2.24 (1.51–3.33), hospitalisation 1.29 (1.09–1.54), ADL worsening 1.98 (1.54–2.55); falls interpreted separately.

Time frame

Recruitment cohorts followed for seven and four years; the cited Table 7 estimates concern three years.

Research funding

Multiple NHLBI/NIH Cardiovascular Health Study contracts, detailed in the article.

Research conflicts of interest

The separate competing-interest statement has not been verified.

Reading scope

Original PDF pages M146–M154. The sex-, BMI- and height-specific threshold appendix remains to be checked item by item.

References

1. Fried LP, Tangen CM, Walston J, Newman AB, Hirsch C, Gottdiener J, Seeman T, Tracy R, Kop WJ, Burke G, McBurnie MA, Cardiovascular Health Study Collaborative Research Group (2001). Frailty in older adults: evidence for a phenotype. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/56.3.m146

Publication record

TAP-RDN-0067 · v1.0 · English

Author: TAP Editorial Team ·

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