Tracking changes in frailty throughout later life:results from a 17-year longitudinal study in the Netherlands

Background: to better understand the development of frailty with ageing requires longitudinal studies over an extended time period. Objective: to investigate changes in the degree of frailty during later life, and the extent to which changes are determined by socio-demographic characteristics. Methods: six measurement waves of 1,659 Dutch older adults aged 65 years and over in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) yielded 5,211 observations over 17 years. At each wave, the degree of frailty was measured with a 32-item frailty index (FI), employing the deficit accumulation approach. Soc... Mehr ...