Examining the Progression of Multidimensional Frailty in the Canadian Population
Description: Frailty, especially at its earlier stages, may represent a period of transition from healthy aging to dependency that could be a target for interventions directed at restoring health and delaying decline. There is currently no agreement on how we define frailty, but it is generally considered to represent a progressive age-related physical decline that results in increasing vulnerability which makes a range of poor health outcomes more likely. With our population aging, frailty is an important public health priority. Although it is more commonly found in the oldest old, frailty is associated with higher mortality and use of health services across all ages. Furthermore, at younger ages recovery from frailty to a healthier state is more common, suggesting the importance of identifying frailty across all ages to improve health. There is now a fair bit of information on overall frailty in Canada, but less information of different types of frailty (physical, psychological, social, and cognitive) and how they change over time. In the long run, we want to see if knowing about the different types of frailty and how they change over time may help to better target people at risk for functional decline or disability. This project will help us address the question of "why do some people become more frail while others do not?" We will describe how different frailty types (physical, psychological, social, and cognitive) accumulate and change over time. We will also see how the changes in frailty types are related to health care use and mortality and how these relationships differ for women and men as across age groups.
Amount: CA$70,000
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: Catalyst Grant: Analysis of CLSA Data -Patient Oriented Research
Start date: 2025-03-01
End date: 2026-02-28
Investigator: Lauren Griffith
Institution: McMaster University
Topic: Frailty in Older Adults
Subfield: Geriatrics and Gerontology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: 200194_1
OpenAlex ID: G8613639393