title: Frailty in primary care: a review of its conceptualization and implications for practice.
abstract: Frail, older patients pose a challenge to the primary care physician who may often feel overwhelmed by their complex presentation and tenuous health status. At the same time, family physicians are ideally suited to incorporate the concept of frailty into their practice. They have the propensity and skill set that lends itself to patient-centred care, taking into account the individual subtleties of the patient's health within their social context. Tools to identify frailty in the primary care setting are still in the preliminary stages of development. Even so, some practical measures can be taken to recognize frailty in clinical practice and begin to address how its recognition may impact clinical care. This review seeks to address how frailty is recognised and managed, especially in the realm of primary care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine (Division of Geriatric Medicine) Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
authors.forename: Alethea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lacas
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rockwood
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003191:Comprehensive Health Care; D016330:Frail Elderly; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D057285:Precision Medicine; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000639:trends; D011787:Quality of Health Care