Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Frailty is an important clinical state that contributes to falls, hospitalization, institutionalization and death. When an individual simultaneously has many health problems, a frailty "tipping point" may be triggered by even a minor stressful event such as adding a new drug or urinary tract infection. Research suggests that approximately 23% of Canadians over age 65 are frail, and by age 85 this estimate increases to over 40%. As we learn more about frailty and its consequences, there is an urgent need to determine the most effective interventions that improve physical performance of frail older adults. Our study aimed to determine the effect of frailty interventions on physical performance of older adults. We searched electronic databases to find and screen relevant studies. After extracting the required information from these relevant studies, we tested the quality of the included studies and conducted our analysis. A total of 180 RCTs were included. The average age of included studies ranged between 75 and 85 years, and 62.5% of participants were female. Our results suggested that medication management interventions, when compared to standard care, were associated with the greatest improvement of physical performance followed by physical activity with nutritional supplementation. Given the low quality of the included studies, more high quality studies that examine the effect of frailty treatments on physical performance are required.