INVESTIGATING FRAILTY AND THE FEASABILITY OF USING A FRAILTY MEASURMENT TOOL AMONG EGYPTIANS

Abstract

Background: Older frail adults experience higher mortality, hospitalization, and morbidity. As a result, researchers have extensively studied frailty in developed nations. However, the same cannot be said for developing countries, especially Arabic-speaking countries (ASCs). Egypt has the largest Arabic-speaking population, which is aging, but frailty has not been well studied in this region. This creates the risk of a health catastrophe when caring for older, frail Egyptians. Objectives of this thesis are to: 1) examine frailty research in ASCs; 2) understand the reported information on frailty and its related domains (e.g., prevalence, sex, comorbidities, and health and social conditions) among people over 60 who live in ASCs; 3) determine the frailty assessment tools used to identify and/or measure frailty in older adults living in ASCs; 4) assess the suitability of a Canadian frailty tool (PFFS) for identifying frail older adults in Egypt; and 5) evaluate the familiarity of non-geriatric doctors in Egypt with the concept of frailty and their preferred methods for identifying frail older people. Method: To achieve objectives 1–3, a scoping review based on the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology was conducted. For objective 4, a study was conducted to determine whether it was feasible to utilize the Arabic translated version of the Pictorial Fit Frail Scale (PFFS-A) to assess frailty in older Egyptians in diverse settings. A questionnaire was used to determine the perceptions of four non-geriatric specialities on frailty (objective 5). Result: Only 27 papers matched the search criteria of the scoping review. These papers showed that frailty research was limited in ASCs and what has been done is mainly cross -sectional in nature. The results of the feasibility study showed that the PFFS-A was a valid and reliable tool that could identify frailty among older Egyptians. Finally, the results from the questionnaire indicate that Egyptian non-geriatric clinicians understand the concept of frailty but not its measurement. Non- geriatric clinicians also believe that frailty should be mainly assessed in primary care and geriatric clinics. Conclusion: In ASCs, frailty, its measurement, and its associated outcomes are not well understood. However, our work has shown that frailty can be easily and accurately measured with a simple frailty tool, the PFFS-A. This study also shows that more work needs to be done to educate non-geriatric specialities about the importance of frailty and how to measure it.