Assessment of functional impairment in the frailty phenotype in the elderly, provisional data

Authors

Keywords:

fragility, aging, functionality

Abstract

The continuous aging process is a demographic phenomenon common to all countries, the share of the elderly is increasing every year. The quality of life of the elderly population is accompanied by a physical, cognitive and sensory decline, which determines the limitation of physical mobility with impairment of functionality in this group of people. Within the institutional project 20.80009.8007.25 Fragility: diagnosis and prophylaxis in corelation to the medical-psycho-social problems of the vulnerable elderly, it was proposed to evaluate the functional disorders of the phenotype of fragility in the elderly. The epidemiological study was performed on a group of 188 elderly people, divided into three groups based on the Fried criteria of fragility: group I (fragile) - 53.19%, group II (prefragile) - 26.06% and group III (robust) - 20.74%. All participants were examined according to the comprehensive geriatric assessment, the Fried fragility criteria, the Gröningen score, The Short Physical Performance Battery, SARC-F and  the geriatric depression scale. The following statistical methods were used to increase the degree of objectivity, such as: correlational analysis type, and to evaluate mobility disorders according to the type of frailty, cluster analysis of k-media was performed which showed the association of clinical manifestations (qualitatively assessed - absence/presence: 0/1 and quantitatively) by dividing them into 3 clusters: (1) with increased physical and cognitive fragility, (2) with moderate physical fragility and (3) „functionally high” cluster. Frailty syndrome includes multidimensional aspects and has an increased prevalence among the elderly. The data obtained presented positive and negative correlations with various biomarkers, syndromes and geriatric scores, suggesting physical, cognitive and social fragility with decreased autonomy and the installation of dependence in the elderly included into the study.

References

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Published

2026-04-20

Issue

No. 2(93) (2022)

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How to Cite

[1]
Lupascu-Volentir, F. et al. 2026. Assessment of functional impairment in the frailty phenotype in the elderly, provisional data. Public Health, Economy and Management in Medicine. 2(93) (Apr. 2026), 23–28.

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