Frailty Information Resource& Frailty Poster
‘Frailty’ is a term that’s used a lot, but is often misunderstood.
When used properly, it refers to a person’s mental and physical resilience, or their ability to bounce back and recover from events like illness and injury.
Frail people usually suffer from three or more of five symptoms that often co-exist.
- Muscle loss and Weakness
- Fatigue
- Unintentional weight loss (10 or more pounds within the past year),
- Low levels of physical activity
- Slow walking speed
It’s also important to consider the following as possible indicators of frailty:
- Falls
- Immobility( eg sudden change in mobility)
- Delirium
- Incontinence( new onset or worsening urine or faecal incontinence)
- Susceptibility to side effects of medications ( esp. confusion and hypotension)
- Visual impairment
- Cognitive impairment MMSE< 25
- Increasing need for support
If you see a patient with some of these symptoms or indicators you should consider coding them as FRAIL and using the Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale to determine the severity of frailty
Here is a link to the online training module for the Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale:
