Rockwood Kenneth, Mitnitski Arnold
Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Mech Ageing Dev. 2006 May;127(5):494-6. doi: 10.1016/j.mad.2006.01.002. Epub 2006 Feb 20.
We evaluated limits to the accumulation of deficits (symptoms, diseases, disabilities) for 33,069 people aged 65+ years. We combined deficits in a frailty index (theoretical range 0-1) and found that the 99% limit varied little between samples, representing a frailty index value of about 0.65 +/- 0.05. This near-maximum shows no relationship with age. It is the same in community and institutional samples, even though the mean value is much higher in the latter. The data suggest a level of frailty beyond which, even in developed countries, further deficit accumulation is not sustainable.
我们评估了33069名65岁及以上老年人的失能（症状、疾病、残疾）累积限度。我们将各项失能合并为一个衰弱指数（理论范围为0至1），发现99%的限度在各样本之间变化不大，对应的衰弱指数值约为0.65±0.05。这个接近最大值的数值与年龄无关。在社区样本和机构样本中情况相同，尽管后者的平均值要高得多。数据表明存在一个衰弱水平，即使在发达国家，超过这个水平后进一步的失能累积也是不可持续的。
