Identifying and managing frailty: a survey of UK healthcare professionals
Identifying and managing frailty: a survey of UK healthcare professionals
Frailty is a common condition that leads to multiple adverse outcomes. Frailty should be identified and managed in a holistic, evidence-based and patient-centered way. We aimed to understand how UK healthcare professionals (HCPs) identify and manage frailty in comparison with UK Fit for Frailty guidelines, their frailty training, their confidence in providing support and organizational pathways for this. An online mixed-methods survey was distributed to UK HCPs supporting older people through professional bodies, special interest groups, key contacts, and social media. From 137 responses, HCPs valued frailty assessment but used a mixture of tools that varied by profession. HCPs felt confident managing frailty and referred older people to a wide range of supportive services, but acknowledged a lack of formalized training opportunities, systems, and pathways for frailty management. Clearer pathways, more training, and stronger interprofessional communication, appropriate to each setting, may further support HCPs in frailty management.
ageing, frailty, geriatrics, healthcare, healthcare professionals, older people, online survey
Frost, Rachael
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Robinson, Katie
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Gordon, Adam
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Caldeira De Melo, Ruth
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Villas Boas, Paulo J.F.
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Azevedo, Paula S.
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Hinsliff-Smith, Kathryn
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Gavin, James P.
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Frost, Rachael
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Robinson, Katie
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Gordon, Adam
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Caldeira De Melo, Ruth
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Villas Boas, Paulo J.F.
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Azevedo, Paula S.
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Hinsliff-Smith, Kathryn
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Gavin, James P.
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Frost, Rachael, Robinson, Katie, Gordon, Adam, Caldeira De Melo, Ruth, Villas Boas, Paulo J.F., Azevedo, Paula S., Hinsliff-Smith, Kathryn and Gavin, James P.
(2023)
Identifying and managing frailty: a survey of UK healthcare professionals.
Journal of Applied Gerontology.
(doi:10.1177/07334648231206321).
Abstract
Frailty is a common condition that leads to multiple adverse outcomes. Frailty should be identified and managed in a holistic, evidence-based and patient-centered way. We aimed to understand how UK healthcare professionals (HCPs) identify and manage frailty in comparison with UK Fit for Frailty guidelines, their frailty training, their confidence in providing support and organizational pathways for this. An online mixed-methods survey was distributed to UK HCPs supporting older people through professional bodies, special interest groups, key contacts, and social media. From 137 responses, HCPs valued frailty assessment but used a mixture of tools that varied by profession. HCPs felt confident managing frailty and referred older people to a wide range of supportive services, but acknowledged a lack of formalized training opportunities, systems, and pathways for frailty management. Clearer pathways, more training, and stronger interprofessional communication, appropriate to each setting, may further support HCPs in frailty management.
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Frailty UK paper Tables_final
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Frailty survey paper v3.0_final_19.9.23
- Accepted Manuscript
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Frailty UK paper Figures
- Accepted Manuscript
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frost-et-al-2023-identifying-and-managing-frailty-a-survey-of-uk-healthcare-professionals
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 19 September 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 October 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: PSA was supported by Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel internationalization program (CAPES-PRINT-Unesp) – 001.
Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge funding from the British Council Researcher Links funding programme and FAPESP for funding the workshop “Identifying and addressing shared challenges in conducting health and social care research for older people (OPAL),” where the idea of this paper was born.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
Keywords:
ageing, frailty, geriatrics, healthcare, healthcare professionals, older people, online survey
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 483303
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/483303
ISSN: 0733-4648
PURE UUID: 73342080-93d3-47a0-a627-593bc1cc8914
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Date deposited: 27 Oct 2023 16:46
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:51
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Contributors
Author:
Rachael Frost
Author:
Katie Robinson
Author:
Adam Gordon
Author:
Ruth Caldeira De Melo
Author:
Paulo J.F. Villas Boas
Author:
Paula S. Azevedo
Author:
Kathryn Hinsliff-Smith
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