Frailty and Sarcopenia Concepts

It should be noted that the concept of frailty had originated from the works of biogerontologists, but it gained increasing importance in recent decades due to its significance for more broad issues related to aging. In general, it is possible to characterize frailty in the following way: it is a chronic condition that derives from various causes, and it negatively impacts the individual’s strength and endurance (most notably, skeletal and muscular mass), which translates into exposure to more risks.

The concept of frailty could be efficiently employed by gerontologists in their practice and theoretical research. As it is stated in the article by Wilson, Jackson, Sapey, and Lord (2017), the Frailty Index is widely used in contemporary gerontology, which resulted in the development of such screening tools as the Edmonton Frail Scale and PRISMA 7. It could be stated that the employment of the concept of frailty provides a holistic framework for the analysis of the processes related to aging. It could hardly be doubted that the progress in the theoretical field of frailty studies results in significant implications for clinical practice.

Wilson et al. (2017) suggest that the Frailty Index model is considerably efficient in terms of its clinical application since it allows to employ of both physical and psychological factors when working with aging patients. Due to the employment of this holistic approach, diagnosing and intervention development becomes significantly more efficient. It is evident that the concept of frailty appears to be one of the most important trajectories of research in contemporary gerontology.

This paper indicates that there is a considerably vast theoretical potential in this concept, and also theoretical findings could be effectively used in clinical practice. Approaches related to frailty could be used in nursing homes and clinical areas as well as in individual and palliative care.