Frailty can be seen as the weakening of health (defined as the resilience or capacity to cope and to maintain and restore one’s integrity, equilibrium, and sense of well-being in 3 domains: physical, mental, and social).
Clinically, it has been defined as a "multifactorial syndrome characterized by diminished strength, endurance, and reduced physiologic function that increases an individual’s vulnerability to develop increased dependency and/or death".
Sarcopenia is the presence of low muscle mass plus low muscle function associated with aging.
Both these entities are strongly linked and the main predictors of negative health outcomes such as falls, disability, hospitalization, and death. They are considered treatable conditions that may be reversible.
But what are effective intervention options?
Exercise and nutritional interventions seem to be safe and are recommended from a public health point of view in older populations, both healthy or with a wide range of co-morbid problems. Therefore, there seem to be no clear reasons to avoid these interventions in frail or sarcopenic patients.
> From: Lozano-Montoya et al., Clin Interv Aging 12 (2017-05-24 08:43:39) 721-740 . All rights reserved to The Author(s). Click here for the online summary.