title: Frailty in advanced heart failure: a systematic review.
abstract: Frailty is a common geriatric syndrome of increased vulnerability to adverse events. The prevalence of frailty among chronic heart failure (CHF) is high and confers a greater risk of adverse events including falls, hospitalisation and mortality. There have been few studies assessing frailty in CHF. A review of the key databases was conducted from 2004 to 2014 including the key search terms 'frail elderly' and 'heart failure'. The following electronic databases were searched: Medline, Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health and Academic Search Complete, with reference lists being manually searched. Articles were included if frailty was assessed using a valid measuring tool in a population with a confirmed diagnosis of CHF. The search yielded a total of 393 articles with 8 articles being selected for review. The prevalence of frailty among those with CHF was high, ranging from 18 to 54 %. The frailty phenotype and geriatric assessments tools were the most common frailty measures utilised; high rates of co-morbidity, hospitalisation and mortality were identified. Frailty is common in CHF and is associated with adverse outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Faculty Health, Centre for Cardiovascular and Chronic Care, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia, sunita.jha@uts.edu.au.
authors.forename: Sunita R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Jha
authors.forename: Hakeem S K
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Louise D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Hickman
authors.forename: Malin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hannu
authors.forename: Patricia M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.forename: Phillip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Newton
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015897:Comorbidity; D018450:Disease Progression; D016330:Frail Elderly / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors