[Screening for frailty: a benefit for both patients and physicians]

Preventing the increasing number of depending persons is a novel priority in European Union health policy. One of the means to succeed relies on identifying, among elderly persons, those at risk of dependency, also named "the frail elderly". Screening for frailty is also useful to better assess the physiological reserves of the elderly before any therapeutic decision, as early as the first consultation. Researchers currently work on developing a new simple tool allowing a distinction between frail and robust persons. Since frailty is partly reversible, the global geriatric evaluation, in a one-day clinic, will lead to a personalized program to prevent or reverse frailty by a multidisciplinary approach.