Prevalence of Frailty Increases Throughout Adulthood

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The prevalence of frailty, which is linked to earlier death, increases throughout adulthood and not just after age 65 years, according to results from the Canadian National Population Health Survey reported online April 26 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"The prevalence of frailty increases with age in older adults, but frailty is largely unreported for younger adults, where its associated risk is less clear," write Kenneth Rockwood, MD, from Dalhousie University and the Centre for Health Care of the Elderly in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and colleagues. "Furthermore, less is known about how frailty changes over time among younger adults. We estimated the prevalence and outcomes of frailty, in relation to accumulation of deficits, across the adult lifespan."...

With advancing age, the prevalence of frailty increased from 2.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.7% - 2.4%) for participants younger than 30 years to 22.4% (95% CI, 19.0% - 25.8%) for those older than 65 years. For participants who were at least 85 years old, the prevalence of frailty was 43.7% (95% CI, 37.1% - 50.8%).

Compared with frail participants, relatively fit participants had lower 160-month mortality rate at all ages. At age 40 years, 160-month mortality rate was 2% vs 16%, respectively; and at age 75 years, it was 42% vs 83%, respectively. Participants who were initially relatively fit tended to remain relatively fit with time.

Compared with all other groups, the group with the most frailty had a greater proportion of participants using health services at baseline (28.3%; 95% CI, 21.5% - 35.5%) and at each follow-up cycle (26.7%; 95% CI, 15.4% - 28.0%).

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