“Frailing” or Failing? Defining frailty syndrome vs adult failure to thrive for clinical practice

Physical decline and aging often go hand-in-hand – they are frequently synonymous. As one ages, the human body naturally undergoes a slow process of deterioration, and sometimes this process results in what is known as frailty syndrome. When most people hear this term they think of general fragility. While this is true to an extent, it has been suggested that at least three of the following elements must be present in order to deem an individual as frail: “unexplained weight loss, self-reported exhaustion, weak grip strength, slow walking speed, and low activity.”1 Based on this definition, experts on aging agree that frailty is a very important, yet complex, medical condition and one that has many causative factors and ultimately “increases the vulnerability of a person for greater dependency and/or death.”2 Phillips-Burkhart (2016) reveals that frailty is commonly found among those individuals who are older than 70 years of age, and its prevalence drastically increases among those who are older than 80 years of age.
Source: Geriatric Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: GAPNA Section Source Type: research