Frailty In Older Adults Essay

Individual factors were found to be a predictor of functional limitation and frailty in older adults. Several studies showed that personal characteristics, such as ethnicity, female gender and age (Espinoza & Hazuda, 2015), gene (Interleukin-18 gene) (Mekli, Marshall, Nazroo, Vanhoutte, & Pendleton, 2015), education and health status, demonstrated an association with frailty (Chang et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2014; Fried et al., 2001; Mitnitski et al., 2015; Tocchi, 2015). Furthermore, it is clear that comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus (DM), stroke, hip fracture, history of coronary heart disease (CHD) and arthritis significantly increase the risk of frailty (Ambrose, Cruz, & Paul, 2015; Zaslavsky et al., 2013).

In the later stages, the individual may become emotionally and physically frail and their reliance on care will increase to the point where they will no longer be able to care for themselves.

More people are living much longer lives than in years past. People are very surprised to be living much longer lives than they thought they would. Health care has played a large part in patient longevity. There are many normal changes that come along with aging, however, because people are living longer these normal changes can become chronic problems. Common aging problems that can make the older adult a vulnerable population are reviewed in Gerontological Nursing (Tabloski, 2014) and can include nutritional needs, medication management, sleep changes, oral or mouth care, renal problems and musculoskeletal concerns. According to A Profile of Older Americans: 2013 (http://www.hhs.gov), there are a large amount

Many elderly and their family cannot determine what are normal aging and what are not; therefore, educating them is the key role for nurses to promote safety and health for older adults. Not only assessing physical changes but also mental health assessment is important because those age-related physical changes may cause depression in older adults, which leads to other problems like “difficulty with sleeping,

As a person ages, theirs body cannot perform the way it used to. This will cause many elderly people to loose their job or choose to go into retirement. Both of these options cause a loss in health care as well and a reduced or exterminated income. Here alone lies a reason that the elderly population is challenged. The elderly population also has a tendency to develop a chronic illness that can be life threatening if not treated or controlled properly. This means that need for health care treatments also increases. At least 40% of those over age 65 will have nutrition-related health problems requiring treatment or management (Gigante, 2012). It is important to realize that 10% of people over the age of 65 and will develop Alzheimer’s disease and 50% of those over the age of 85 will develop this disease (Gigante, 2012). More elderly African American men and women use government aid than white men and women. Therefore, this population will be vulnerable because of the lack of funding, proper health care and insurance.

(helpguide, 2012) Effective care for older patients requires an accurate assessment of the elderly's health status. Physical, psychological, social, and behavioral and health system factors may influence their health status. Functional health status includes: a) basic activities of daily living; dressing, feeding, bathing, toileting, transfer-moving inside and round the house, b) instrumental activities of daily living; shopping, laundry, cooking, housekeeping, taking medication, managing money, c) advanced activities of daily living; social activity, occupation, recreation. Cognitive function assessment includes: attention span, concentration, intelligence, judgment, learning ability, memory, orientation, perception, problem solving, psychomotor ability, reaction time, social intactness. (ispub, 2012)

Allen, J.D., Robbins, J.L., VanBruggen, M.D., Credeur, D.P., Johannsen, N.M., Earnest, C.P.,…Welsch, M.A. (2013). Unlocking the barriers to improved functional capacity in the elderly: rationale and design for the “fit for life trial”. Contemporary Clinical Trials. 36(1), 266-275.

Recognition, evaluation and treatment of this population requires interdisciplinary approach. The interdisciplinary approach collaborate with various groups to provide adequate resources to the vulnerable population. The internal and external factors impact health status of older adults and contributes to vulnerability risk. The internal factor occur due to physiological changes such as increasing age, gender, sensory impairment, memory impairment, substance abuse along with medical co morbidities, malnutrition, decrease in performance of activity of daily living or dependency on care giver or

Aging is a universal phenomenon and humans are no exception. Gerontology deals with the psychological, social and biological aspects of aging process. A recent study shows that people aged 85 years and older are expected to augment from 5.3 million people to 21 million as the world reach 2050. In today’s world Gerontology has an enormous role to play so that the senior citizens could be analyzed and their needs may be addressed with compassion and empathy.

As people grow older, they develop dental problems which lead to nutritional intake issues. Cognitive function declines affecting memory, decision making, conversing, and problem solving. In addition, falls can occur with mental status disturbances. Lack of social interaction, depression, and anxiety also crop up in the elderly. Sleep patterns are altered by restless legs, snoring, and disrupted breathing sequences. At times, pain can be constant from arthritis, osteoarthritis, or other medical issues (Tabloski, 2014).

As individuals age changes occur physiologically that are part of normal aging. These changes occur in all organ systems and can impact an individual’s quality of life. The changes related to aging can be attributed to an individual’s genetic make up, lifestyle, physical activity, and dietary lifestyle. Being able to differentiate between normal changes in aging against disease process is important because it can help clinicians develop a plan of care (Boltz, Capezuti, Fulmer, & Zwicker, 2012). Creating an accurate plan of care for older adults will greatly impact their quality of life.

Reported Edmonton Frail Scale (REFS). The REFS derived from the Edmonton Frail Scale which defined frailty using the accumulation deficit model. The REFS evaluated ten domains for screening cognition function, general health status, functional independence, social support, medication uses, nutrition, mood, incontinence, self-reported performance. A total REFS score is 18, the scores of 12–18 is severe frailty, score 10–11 is moderate frailty, scores 8–9 is mild frailty, scores 6–7 is apparently frail and scores 0–5 is non-frail (Hilmer et al.,

There are two well described models of Frailty. Phenotype model given by Fried et al in 2001 [45], which describes physical frailty and Cumulative deficit model given by Rockwood et al in 2005 [52].

To deal with the complexity of frailty in clinical settings, screening who are truly frail with an effectively instrument is significance. Several concepts of frailty have been established to detect frail status. Various assessment instruments also have been developed and widely translated to assess frail status. The most common components of frailty assessment were physical performance, physical activity, fatigue, cognitive function, weight loss, and comorbidity. Current evidence shows that individual factors and individual behavior factors may lead to the different rate of progression of frailty. Thus, translating frailty screening—the Thai version—with considering for individual factors and cultural context will make a shift to the precision

at the time of your visit. We have divided the DGA in two parts, each with three