On the other end of the spectrum, older patients who are "frail" demonstrate dependence in basic functional tasks, significantly impaired mobility, significant comorbidities, and/or at least one significant geriatric syndrome, such as falls.
Thirdly, some factors identified in the past, e.g., physically disabled, old age and frail, living alone, dependence on others for activities of daily life and travel inconvenience [ 32], may result in the consequence that these individuals are not exposed to the ophthalmic service.
In community-dwelling older people, 0.25 has been proposed as the cutoff between "fit" and "frail," with scores of >0.40 associated with dependence on others for activities of daily living.
Intervention to prevent or delay frailty has important benefits for older people, health services and society. 1 2 Frailty is a medical syndrome with numerous causes, characterised by reduced strength, endurance and physiological function, resulting in increased vulnerability to functional decline, dependence and/or death. 1 Pre-frailty is an intermediate stage between non-frail and frail.
The study was addressed to patients older than 65 years; frail elderly patients were excluded according to the following criteria: age >85 years, dependence in one or more activities of daily living, presence of three or more comorbid conditions and presence of one or more geriatric syndromes (Balducci and Yates 2000).
In frail elderly patients, this 30 second TUG cut-off was also associated with functional dependence.
If a health-promoting programme is introduced when older persons who were born abroad are pre-frail, it is possible to prevent or delay deterioration in health (i.e. dependence in ADL, self-rated health) and life satisfaction.
The study aims to prove the following two hypotheses: If a health-promoting programme is introduced when older persons who were born abroad are pre-frail, it is possible to prevent or delay deterioration in health (i.e. dependence in ADL, self-rated health) and life satisfaction.
Independent correlates of a poor QOL in the total sample were "reduced energy level" (SOF criterion for frailty), depressive status, dependence in transferring and bathing abilities and money management (adjusted R squared 0.39); among "frail" participants the associations were with depressive status and younger age, and among "robust" participants the association was with lower body mass index.
The intervention 'Continuum of care for frail older people' showed that the integrated intervention improved independence in ADL up to twelve months and postponed dependence up to six months.
