FRAILTY IN OLDER ADULTS AND CHANGES IN THE PATTERN OF HEALTHCARE USE

Frailty in elderly persons, defined as a loss of physiological reserve, is an issue for the spectrum of care provided in health services systems. In frail elderly persons, resistance to physiological stress, ability to sustain aggressive treatments, needs for supportive services aimed at disabled persons, and regaining health at the level experienced before the occurrence of an episode of care are reduced. Thus, frailty should be a concern for all of healthcare policies and services at all levels of healthcare systems: screening and preventing frailty through public health interventions; integrating frailty in diagnosis and treatments of health conditions in primary, secondary and tertiary care and in outpatient and inpatient care; and in designing long-term residential care. But, should it be? A first step in the examination of this issue is to estimate the extent to which frailty changes the pattern of healthcare use at different levels of care.