Frailty assessment using routine clinical data: An integrative review

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Clinical Informatics
• Public Health

Background:

• Frailty is a prevalent and intricate condition affecting older adults.
• Routine clinical data from electronic health records (EHRs) offer a pragmatic approach for frailty assessment in primary care and hospital settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the tools and outcome variables employed in studies assessing frailty using routine clinical data.
• To understand the current landscape of frailty assessment within electronic health record systems.

Main Methods:

• An integrative literature review was performed, adhering to the Whittemore and Knafl methodology.
• A comprehensive literature search was conducted across PubMed, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases.
• Data were collected for studies published between January 2010 and October 2021.

Main Results:

• Analysis encompassed 45 studies and identified thirteen distinct frailty assessment tools.
• Assessment items predominantly focused on frailty risk factors, with less emphasis on underlying mechanisms or phenotypes.
• Frailty identified through routine clinical data demonstrated associations with adverse health outcomes, mirroring findings from conventional assessment tools.

Conclusions:

• Frailty assessment utilizing routine clinical data from EHRs provides an efficient method for evaluating frailty in healthcare settings.
• Refinement of these data-driven approaches is necessary to incorporate a more comprehensive understanding of frailty's risk factors, mechanisms, and phenotypes.