How to Include the Social Factor for Determining Frailty?
Traditionally, frailty has been understood as a biological syndrome associated with bad health-related outcomes. However, nowadays there are no universally accepted diagnostic criteria for this syndrome, much less studies approaching it from a non-biological framework. Some previous work has been able to highlight social factors as important features implicated in the development of this entity, and are now recognized as relevant to understand frailty. However, research in this field is still limited. It seems clear that social factors, often ignored in the medical context, might represent risk factors for the development of this geriatric syndrome. To identify these factors, as well as their role in the physiopathology of frailty, could be of great importance in order to establish potential multidimensional models to treat frailty. A life course approach to determine the correlates and trajectories of frailty seems to be necessary. The allostatic load through life and chronic inflammation in the elderly are potential mediators of this relationship. Therefore, social profile should be systematically assessed and taken into account when evaluating an elderly person. So, the present review proposes how to include social factors as another determinant of frailty.
Luis Miguel Gutiérrez-Robledo. Director General. Instituto de Geriatría at the National Institutes of Health Mexico. Periférico Sur 2767 Col. San Jerónimo Lídice. CP 10200; Magdalena Contreras, Distrito Federal, México. E-mail: luis.gutierrez@salud.gob.mx.
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