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Frailty in Older Persons

2017; Elsevier BV; Volume: 33; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.cger.2017.02.002

1879-8853

Matteo Cesari, Riccardo Calvani, Emanuele Marzetti,

Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life

Frailty is a clinical state characterized by a decrease of an individual's homeostatic reserves and is responsible for enhanced vulnerability to endogenous and/or exogenous stressors. Such a condition of extreme vulnerability exposes individuals to an increased risk of negative health-related outcomes. Multiple operational definitions of frailty are available in the literature, but none can be indicated as a gold standard. Frailty should be considered a condition of major interest for public health and become the lever for reshaping the obsolete health care systems currently unable to adequately address the clinical needs of aging populations.