Articles: frailty-index.
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Experimental gerontology · Oct 2014
Frailty and telomere length: cross-sectional analysis in 3537 older adults from the ESTHER cohort.
Both telomere length and frailty were observed to be associated with aging. Whether and to what extent telomere length is related to frailty is essentially unknown. In this cross-sectional analysis of baseline data of 3537 community-dwelling adults aged 50 to 75 years of a large German cohort study, we assessed the hypothesis that shorter telomere length might be a biological marker for frailty. ⋯ Mean FI value was similar across tertiles of the T/S ratio (0.24±0.14, 0.24±0.14 and 0.23±0.14, respectively (p=0.09)), and FI and the T/S ratio were uncorrelated in gender- and age-specific analyses. In conclusion, T/S ratio and frailty were unrelated in this large sample of older adults. T/S ratio may therefore not be a meaningful biological marker for frailty.
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A best evidence topic in thoracic surgery was performed according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was the role of frailty scores in predicting outcomes of patients undergoing thoracic surgery. Seventy-one papers were found using the reported search, of which three studies and one conference abstract represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. ⋯ Their conclusion supported the conclusions drawn from the larger studies that a single frailty measure alone did not predict an increase in morbidity or mortality, but in combination several measures may have a role in predicting postoperative outcomes. The clinical bottom line is that there is a paucity of evidence to either fully support or fully refute the use of preoperative frailty scoring as a reliable means of predicting morbidity and mortality in thoracic surgery. The evidence presented does however indicate the potentially important clinical role that frailty scores may have in the future.
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hip fracture is expensive in terms of mortality, hospital length of stay (LOS) and consequences for independence. Poor outcome reflects the vulnerability of patients who typically sustain this injury, but the impact of different comorbidities and impairments is complex to understand. We consider this in a prospective cohort study designed to examine how a patients' frailty index (FI) predicts outcome. ⋯ individual CGA findings proved disappointing as outcome predictors, while FI turned out to be a better predictor of mortality, 30-day residence and length of inpatient stay.
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Nov 2013
The ability of three different models of frailty to predict all-cause mortality: results from the European Male Aging Study (EMAS).
Few studies have directly compared the ability of the most commonly used models of frailty to predict mortality among community-dwelling individuals. Here, we used a frailty index (FI), frailty phenotype (FP), and FRAIL scale (FS) to predict mortality in the EMAS. Participants were aged 40-79 years (n=2929) at baseline and 6.6% (n=193) died over a median 4.3 years of follow-up. ⋯ Compared to robust men, those who were FP frail at baseline had a HR for death of 3.84, while those who were FS frail had a HR of 3.87. All three frailty models significantly predicted future mortality among community-dwelling, middle-aged and older European men after adjusting for potential confounders. Our data suggest that the choice of frailty model may not be of paramount importance when predicting future risk of death, enabling flexibility in the approach used.