Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Around the world, the human population is aging, and cancer risk increases with age. Therefore, national governments will face financial and economic strain on their health care sectors as age-related disabilities are significant contributors to health care costs. Life expectancy has increased over the years, but keeping older people healthy remains a significant challenge. There is a high prevalence of frailty among older people, and this is expected to increase. The prevalence of frailty, however, varies depending on how it is defined. A useful definition is that frailty is a multidimensional geriatric syndrome in which functioning (i.e., physical, social and psychological) declines with aging. As frailty increases, so do the risks of falling, hospitalization, acute and chronic diseases, disability, and mortality, and there is a corresponding increase in health care costs. Frailty clearly represents a public health problem, and its prevention should be a priority for policymakers and healthcare organizations. This will require proactive management of resources. Self-management interventions may be a useful tool in preventing or reducing frailty. The goal of self-management interventions is to improve self confidence in managing health conditions and improve quality of life in chronic conditions. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how or whether self-management interventions delay the onset of frailty or reduce its adverse outcomes among community-dwelling older people with cancer. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to identify the role of self-management on frailty and perceived health among community-dwelling older people with cancer.Relationships between individual characteristics, frailty, self-management abilities and poor health will be investigated. This study will generate evidence about the role of self-management in reducing frailty and should consequently reduce the financial costs of frailty in Canada.