Examining frailty in Canada from a population health perspective

Frailty, especially at its earlier stages, may represent a period of transition from healthy aging to dependency that could be a target for interventions directed at restoring robustness and delaying decline. Although frailty is more commonly found in the oldest old, evidence suggests that frailty is associated with higher mortality and health service use across all ages. Furthermore, at younger ages research suggests that recovery from frailty to healthier states is more common, underscoring the importance of identifying frailty across all ages to improve population health. This study will allow us to better understand how the change in frailty varies across Canada. We will identify subgroups of people with a greater degree of change in frailty and how frailty and the change in frailty is related to use of the health-care system. This project will help us address the policy-relevant question of “why are some people more frail and others not?”