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Measuring Frailty in HIV-infected Individuals. Identification of Frail Patients is the First Step to Amelioration and Reversal of Frailty
Published on: July 24, 2013
Frailty and biological age. Which best describes our aging and longevity?
Judith Félix1, Irene Martínez de Toda1, Estefanía Díaz-Del Cerro1
1Department of Genetics, Physiology, and Microbiology (Unit of Animal Physiology), Faculty of Biological Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain; Institute of Investigation Hospital 12 Octubre (imas12), 28041 Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
Frailty and Biological Age are two closely related concepts; however, frailty is a multisystem geriatric syndrome that applies to elderly subjects, whereas biological age is a gerontologic way to describe the rate of aging of each individual, which can be used from the beginning of the aging process, in adulthood. If frailty reaches less consensus on the definition, it is a term much more widely used than this of biological age, which shows a clearer definition but is scarcely employed in social and medical fields. In this review, we suggest that this Biological Age is the best to describe how we are aging and determine our longevity, and several examples support our proposal.
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