The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 5200 Eastern Avenue, Mason F. Lord Building Center Tower, Room 711, Baltimore, MD, 21224, USA.
The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA.
BMC Geriatr. 2018 Feb 13;18(1):46. doi: 10.1186/s12877-018-0741-3.
Frailty has been recognized as an important medical syndrome in older adults. Growing literature supports the clinical application of frailty but US older adults' perceptions of frailty have not been explored. We aim to examine perceptions and informational needs about frailty among older adults.
This was a qualitative study involving focus groups of community-dwelling older adults with diverse age and frailty status. We explored participants' beliefs and knowledge about frailty and informational needs about frailty as a medical syndrome.
The participants' mean age was 76.3. Of the 29 participants, 21 (72%) were female, and 21 (72%) were white. We identified three major themes: 1) Older adults' perceptions of frailty differed from the definition used in medical literature; they often perceived a psychological component to being frailty and some were skeptical of the syndromic definition based on multiple symptoms. 2) Compared to participants who were non-frail or pre-frail, participants who were frail were more receptive to discussing their frailty status with clinicians; 3) Participants wanted know about how to treat or prevent frailty and the risks associated with being frail. Many participants felt that these information can be conveyed without necessarily using the specific term "frail", which they perceived to have a negative connotation.
Older adults, especially those who are frail, may be interested to discuss frailty as a medical syndrome. However, negative perceptions are associated with the term "frail" and may be a barrier to clinical application of frailty. Further research is needed to understand acceptable ways for communicating about frailty in clinical practice.
衰弱已被认为是老年人的一种重要医学综合征。越来越多的文献支持衰弱的临床应用，但尚未探讨美国老年人对衰弱的看法。我们旨在研究老年人对衰弱的看法和信息需求。
这是一项定性研究，涉及具有不同年龄和衰弱状态的社区居住老年人的焦点小组。我们探讨了参与者对衰弱的信念和知识，以及他们对作为一种医学综合征的衰弱的信息需求。
参与者的平均年龄为 76.3 岁。在 29 名参与者中，21 名（72%）为女性，21 名（72%）为白人。我们确定了三个主要主题：1）老年人对衰弱的看法与医学文献中使用的定义不同；他们经常认为衰弱有心理成分，有些人对基于多种症状的综合征定义持怀疑态度。2）与非衰弱或虚弱前期的参与者相比，虚弱的参与者更愿意与临床医生讨论他们的虚弱状况；3）参与者希望了解如何治疗或预防衰弱以及与虚弱相关的风险。许多参与者认为，这些信息可以传达，而不必使用“虚弱”这个特定术语，他们认为这个术语带有负面含义。
老年人，尤其是那些虚弱的老年人，可能有兴趣讨论衰弱作为一种医学综合征。然而，“虚弱”这个词带有负面含义，可能是衰弱在临床应用中的障碍。需要进一步研究以了解在临床实践中传达关于衰弱的可接受方法。
