Grant: Project Grant

Frailty is a common issue facing older men. This syndrome predicts poor health outcomes. We need to understand more about how to prevent frailty, but also about how frailty affects our general well-being. However, there are some gaps in our understanding of frailty. First, frailty seen through the eyes of older men may seem different than when seen through the eyes of researchers and health care providers. This different viewpoint needs further study. Second, we need to understand how frailty changes over time. Third, we need to understand what factors about a person in early life predict frailty in late life. We propose an analysis of a long term study of 3983 men who qualified for air crew in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. Since 1948, the health of these men has been documented over time. We will study how frailty changes over the period of 1996 - 2019; how the mens' own rating of frailty is related to a commonly used clinical measure of frailty, and how frailty affects the mental health of older men. Finally, we will find out factors in early and mid-life which predict late life frailty. These study results will give important information for health care providers, and for those who plan health care services. Most importantly, the results will be useful for older men and their families.