Frailty

Frailty is more common with increasing age but is NOT an inevitable consequence of ageing. Frail people don’t recover as well from illness and have a greater risk of falling, admission to hospital, admission to residential aged care and death. They also have more complications after surgery and a lower quality of life.

Symptoms of frailty include constant fatigue, slow walking speed and unintentional weight loss. There are lots of scales to measure if someone is frail, one that is commonly used in Northern Sydney is the FRAIL SCALE  

Frailty is managed by a comprehensive assessment and a tailored plan of intervention.

This is likely to involve optimising treatment of medical conditions, reviewing your medications and their side effects, nutritional supplementation especially making sure there’s enough protein and calories in your diet and a targeted exercise programme to improve muscle strength and balance.