Diagnostic tools
Nutrition in frail patients: using the GLIM (Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition) criteria for the diagnosis of malnutrition
The group – convened with Dr Cederholm – point out that in frail patients, malnutrition can be caused not only by compromised intake …
A self-reported screening tool for detecting community-dwelling older persons with frailty syndrome in the absence of mobility disability: the FiND questionnaire
The detection of frail older individuals living in the community represents a crucial preliminary step in the development of effective prevention against disability …
Looking for frailty in community-dwelling older persons: the Gérontopôle Frailty Screening Tool (GFST)
Identification of frail patients before their vulnerability is made evident by the onset of a major clinical event is one of the major challenges in implementing frailty into clinical practice. General practitioners play a key role in this context.
Due to an often busy practice, they need to be supported by screening tools, for example the provision of user-friendly and time-efficient ..
Construct validity and reliability of a two-step tool for the identification of frail older people in primary care
The EASY-Care Two-step Older persons Screening (EASY-Care TOS) tool is a practice-based tool designed to help family physicians identify frail older patients. This article by van Kempen and colleagues is one of the first reports to describe the construct validity of the EASY-Care TOS by comparing it with other commonly used other frailty constructs, the Fried Frailty Criteria (FFC) and the Frailty Index (FI), and other related constructs: multimorbidity, disability, cognition, mobility, psychosocial functioning, and quality of life.
Editorial: Frailty screening comes of age
A recent consensus meeting has called for screening by health professionals of all persons 70 years and older for frailty. In this editorial, Dr. John E. Morley discusses a study from the Geriatric Frailty Clinic of the Toulouse Gérontopôle demonstrating that general practitioners can screen for frailty and that when these frail persons are referred for a full geriatric assessment, a variety of treatable conditions are identified.
Assessing physical performance in the older patient: the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB)
The Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) is an objective assessment tool for evaluating lower extremity functioning in older persons. It was developed by the National Institute on Aging in the United States and is available for use without permission or royalty fees.