Frailty assessment utilization around the globe-a systematic review

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Geriatric Medicine
• Public Health

Background:

• Expert guidelines advocate for frailty assessments (FAs) covering physical, functional, cognitive, social, and mental health domains.
• This systematic review analyzes global FAs for geriatric populations (65+) from 2015-2022.
• The study aims to characterize the parameters currently used in frailty assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and characterize the parameters used in global frailty assessments (FAs) for older adults.
• To identify the domains most frequently assessed in current frailty instruments.
• To evaluate the alignment of existing FAs with multidimensional frailty definitions.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review adhering to PRISMA guidelines.
• Screened 3,859 articles, including 202 for final analysis.
• Coded 4,995 FA parameters into 45 health-related categories across 291 identified FAs from 39 countries.

Main Results:

• Frailty assessments (FAs) averaged 17.36 parameters per instrument.
• Physical and functional health comprised 22.32% of all assessed parameters.
• Cognitive, mental, and social health domains were underrepresented, accounting for only 6.09%, 6.35%, and 5.01% of parameters, respectively.

Conclusions:

• Current frailty assessments (FAs) heavily emphasize physical and functional aspects.
• There is a significant gap in addressing cognitive, mental, and social health domains in FAs.
• Refinement of FAs is crucial to ensure holistic and multidimensional assessment of frailty in diverse clinical settings.