Frailty
Frailty as lost physiological reserve, the Fried phenotype, the frailty index and the Clinical Frailty Scale with worked examples, screening tools and their cut-offs, how frailty changes decisions in hospital and surgery, the 2026 Australian consensus statement, exercise, protein and deprescribing, and the exam traps.
Tier 2Medical sciences concept
Written with AI assistance and fact-checked against the sources below. For exam study, not clinical decisions. How notes are made
At a glance
- Frailty is a loss of physiological reserve across several systems. A small stressor causes a large fall in function: the person who becomes delirious and bed-bound with a urinary infection.
- About 10 to 15% of community-dwelling people over 65 are frail, rising steeply after 85, and roughly half of residential aged care residents.
- Frailty predicts falls, delirium, hospital admission, longer stay, discharge to residential care and death, better than age does.
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Sources
- Australian Consensus Statement on the Prevention and Management of Frailty Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: a modified Delphi study (Chopra S, Hubbard RE et al. Med J Aust 2026;224(5):e70182)AU/NZMedical Journal of Australia, 2026
- The Asia-Pacific Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Frailty (Dent E et al. J Am Med Dir Assoc 2017;18:564-75)AU/NZJournal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2017
- Physical frailty: ICFSR international clinical practice guidelines for identification and management (Dent E et al. J Nutr Health Aging 2019;23:771-87)Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, 2019
- Frailty in older adults: evidence for a phenotype (Fried LP et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2001;56:M146-56)Journals of Gerontology, 2001
- A global clinical measure of fitness and frailty in elderly people (Rockwood K et al. CMAJ 2005;173:489-95)Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2005
- Using the Clinical Frailty Scale in allocating scarce health care resources (Rockwood K, Theou O. Can Geriatr J 2020;23:210-5)Canadian Geriatrics Journal, 2020 (CFS version 2.0)
- A standard procedure for creating a frailty index (Searle SD et al. BMC Geriatr 2008;8:24)BMC Geriatrics, 2008
- Development and validation of a Hospital Frailty Risk Score focusing on older people in acute care settings using electronic hospital records (Gilbert T et al. Lancet 2018;391:1775-82)The Lancet, 2018
- Frailty in elderly people (Clegg A et al. Lancet 2013;381:752-62)The Lancet, 2013
- Multicomponent intervention to prevent mobility disability in frail older adults: randomised controlled trial (SPRINTT; Bernabei R et al. BMJ 2022;377:e068788)BMJ, 2022
- Effect of structured physical activity on prevention of major mobility disability in older adults: the LIFE study randomized clinical trial (Pahor M et al. JAMA 2014;311:2387-96)JAMA, 2014
- Fit for FrailtyBritish Geriatrics Society, 2014
- Guideline for perioperative care for people living with frailty undergoing elective and emergency surgeryCentre for Perioperative Care and British Geriatrics Society, 2021
- New guidelines for the perioperative care of people living with frailty undergoing elective and emergency surgery: a commentary (Partridge JSL, Ryan J, Dhesi JK et al. Age Ageing 2022;51(11):afac237)Age and Ageing (Oxford University Press), 2022
- Last updated
- 14 November 2026
What changed
- 14 November 2026 Personal emails, About story and Australian-style copy