Feasibility and impact of a short training course on frailty destined for primary health care professionals

The role of speech-language pathologists in frailty: An Australian qualitative study of perceptions, practices, and opportunities

PURPOSE

Frailty is an important geriatric syndrome, yet the role of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in identifying and managing frailty remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of SLPs regarding frailty, including enablers, barriers, and opportunities for multidisciplinary improvements to frailty prevention and management.

METHOD

In this exploratory qualitative study, data were collected from SLPs through online semi-structured interviews and analysed using a qualitative descriptive approach.

RESULT

Seven Australian SLPs from acute, rehabilitation, geriatric, and community settings were interviewed. Three overarching themes were created: (1) SLPs understand the clinical manifestation of frailty but do not use explicit language to describe it; (2) SLPs acknowledged the importance of addressing knowledge gaps and barriers in frailty management; and (3) SLPs do not currently have an established identity within the frailty field, but do have a role within the multidisciplinary team and the care of people living with frailty.

CONCLUSION

Participants' understandings of frailty varied and highlighted the lack of education about frailty as barriers to effective service provision. Additional research is required to produce formal recommendations for SLPs regarding frailty management, which may include frailty education to SLPs and awareness of SLPs' role within the multidisciplinary team.

Survey on the knowledge and practices in anorexia of aging diagnosis and management in Japan

BACKGROUND

Anorexia of aging (AA) is a condition in older adults that includes loss of appetite and reduced food intake. There is a lack of detailed analysis of the potential influence of educational initiatives in addressing AA. This study aimed to clarify the current state of knowledge and practice regarding AA and its relationship with the availability of continuing education opportunities among Japanese healthcare professionals involved in treating older patients.

METHODS

The Japan Geriatrics Society and the Japanese Association on Sarcopenia and Frailty, in collaboration with the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia, and Wasting Disorders, conducted an online questionnaire survey on the knowledge and practices in AA detection and management. Questions were asked in the areas of demographics, screening, definition/diagnosis, treatment, referral, and awareness, with those who 'participate' in continuing education and professional development programmes in nutrition for their patients were classified as the 'education group' and those who 'do not participate' were classified as the 'non-education group'. The results for each question were compared.

RESULTS

The analysis included 870 participants (physicians, 48%; registered dietitians, 16%; rehabilitation therapists, 14%; pharmacists, 12%; nurses, 6%; and other professionals, 5%). The education group (45%) was more likely than the non-education group (55%) to use the Mini-Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF) to screen for AA (49% vs. 27%) and less likely not to use a validated tool (33% vs. 47%). More participants used evidence-based tools and materials for AA care (38% vs. 12%), and fewer used their clinical judgement (23% vs. 35%) or were unaware of the tools and materials (9% vs. 23%). The proportion using a team of professionals experienced in AA care were 47% and 24% of the education and non-education groups, respectively. By profession, few physicians used specific validated tools and resources for AA screening and treatment. More than half of the dietitians used the MNA-SF regardless of training opportunity availability. Regarding professional availability and team use, differences in educational opportunities were particularly large among physicians.

CONCLUSIONS

Participation in continuing education programmes on nutrition is associated with responsiveness to AA screening and treatment and the availability of a team of professionals, which may influence the quality of AA treatment. Nutrition education may support the confidence of healthcare professionals working with older adults in AA with complex clinical signs and encourage them to conduct evidence-based practice.

Frailty Assessment and Its Impact on Loneliness among Older Adults Receiving Home-Based Healthcare during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of frailty on loneliness among older adults receiving home care, in correlation to their socioeconomic and homebound statuses. This cross-sectional study recruited 218 individuals aged ≥65 years receiving home-based health services from the "Help at Home" program in the Region of Evrytania, Greece through an open invitation from the municipality authorities from March to June 2022. The Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) was used for the evaluation of frailty, the UCLA Loneliness Scale version 3 was used for loneliness, and social isolation was accessed through five questions (living alone, frequency of interaction with children, relatives, friends, and participation in social organizations). The mean age of the participants was 81.48 ± 9.06, 61.9% were female, 54.1% experienced high levels of loneliness (UCLA-3 mean 45.76 ± 11.10 [range 20-68]), and 46.3% of the participants were found to be socially isolated. Also, 58.3% of the individuals were identified as frail (TFI mean 5.95 ± 3.07) [TFI range 0-13], with 57.3% experiencing physical frailty, 43.6% experiencing psychological frailty, and 27.1% experiencing social frailty. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) using UCLA-3 as the dependent variable revealed that loneliness across all domains of TFI was significantly higher in participants with frailty (total frailty [Yes] 49.27 vs. [No] 40,87 p < 0.001) (physical frailty [Yes] = 48.99 vs. [No] = 41.42, p < 0.001, psychological: 48.60 vs. 43.57 p < 0.001, and social: 53.38 vs. 42.94 p < 0.001), particularly compared to non-frail individuals, even after adjusting for potential confounding effects (covariates: gender, age, marital status, family status, living status, educational level, annual income, chronic diseases, homebound status, and social isolation). Our findings indicate that frail older adults experienced higher levels of loneliness, suggesting that frailty and loneliness are independently associated among older adults who receive home-based healthcare.

Pilot Testing of Useful Tools' Validity for Frailty Assessment in Greece: Translated PRISMA-7 Tool, Modified Fried Criteria and Clinical Frailty Scale

The importance of frailty in older people is getting constant recognition as an important aspect both in terms of public health, as well as at a personal level, for the appropriate management of an older person's health condition. This is reflected by the continuously increasing number of research studies carried out in several settings across different countries. Sometimes, this is very solid, but in other cases, there is a considerable gap in terms of accurate and well-grounded documentation of frailty status. This is the case in Greece, where we are missing clinically validated tools to approach frailty. We are missing frailty screening tools, such as, for instance, Program of Research on Integration of Services for the Maintenance of Autonomy 7 (PRISMA 7), the gold standard tool of Fried criteria, is somehow problematic since the question referring to physical activity originates from a questionnaire that has not been translated and validated, while Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) has been validated for translation but not for the capacity to detect frailty. The aim of this study is to validate these tools for their accuracy to detect frailty by using a measurable index of frailty, previously proposed for use in clinical studies: the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). Seventy-four male and female participants (mean age 80.47 years SD = ±7.45 years, minimum-maximum age = 65-95) have been evaluated for their frailty status using different tools. We observed that the PRISMA 7 translation detects frailty only when one question is removed at a cut-off of ≥2 and indicates a sensitivity of 88.1% and specificity of 99.9% with a good correlation with SPPB measurements (r = -0.858; p < 0.001). When CFS was validated using SPPB, it demonstrated a very good correlation (r = -0.838; p < 0.001 respectively) as was the case for the modified Fried Criteria (r = -0.725; p < 0.001). All items demonstrated a good correlation between them. We here propose that we can accurately assess frailty status in the community setting by using a modified version of Fried criteria, Clinical Frailty Scale translation in Greek, and we can screen for frailty by using the Greek translation of PRISMA 7 only after removing item 6 of the questionnaire.

Effectiveness of multi-professional educational interventions to train Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) - a Systematic Review

Introduction

As the world population ages, health and social care professionals are increasingly confronted with patients with chronic long-term conditions and multimorbidity, requiring an extensive assessment and integrated care management strategy. The aim of this paper was to systematically collect and assess evidence of interprofessional education and training strategies for Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) to build a competent health workforce.

Methods

A systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines and the databases Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane and Embase were searched for studies illustrating effectiveness of educational interventions for teaching and training CGA in an interprofessional context.

Results

Based on 21 identified studies, a great variability and heterogeneity in duration, setting and design of the interventions was identified. Promising results were found in the domains analysed, ranging from knowledge and skills; practices and behaviour; patient health outcomes; attitudes and perceptions to collaboration and quality of care.

Discussion

Education and training of transversal skills within a continuous learning approach is key to equip the health care workforce for successful CGA performance in an interprofessional environment.

Conclusion

Further research in this field is recommended to strengthen the evidence-base towards development of a resilient and integrated health care workforce for an ageing population.

The Impact of Frailty and Geriatric Syndromes on the Quality of Life of Older Adults Receiving Home-Based Healthcare: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Purpose: To identify the effect of frailty and geriatric syndromes on the quality of life (QoL), of older adults receiving home care, taking into consideration their socioeconomic and homebound status, including multi-comorbidities. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled elders aged (≥65) years old, registered members of “Help at Home” programs in the Reference Region of Crete, from March to May 2019. Participants were screened using the WHOQOL-BREF for Quality of Life, geriatric syndromes such as frailty using the SHARE-Frailty Index (SHARE-Fi), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), for cognitive function and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), for the assessment of depression. Results: The mean age of the 301 participants was 78.45 (±7.87) years old. The prevalence of frailty was 38.5%, severe depression 13.6%, cognitive dysfunction 87.8% and severe comorbidity 70.6%. Intriguingly, none of the participants (0%) was identified as free of comorbidity (CCI = 0−1). The overall QoL (ranging from 4−20) of the study participants was 13.24 (±4.09). The bivariate analysis showed that overall QoL significantly differed among older adults with frailty (15.91 vs. 11.56, p < 0.001), cognitive dysfunction (15.42 vs. 12.90, p < 0.001), depression (14.90 vs. 9.31, p < 0.001), and disability in Activities of Daily Living (13.67 vs. 10.67, p = 0.002), compared to non-frail, normal cognition and depression, and independent elders, respectively. Multiple linear regression models revealed that frail and depressive elders reported significantly lower QoL (β = −2.65, p < 0.001 and (β = −5.71, p < 0.001), compared to non-frail and older adults with no depressive symptoms, respectively, despite the fact that this association was not significant for older adults with dementia (β = −2.25, p = 0.159), even after adjusting for potential confounding effects (age, gender, comorbidity, homebound status, etc.). Conclusion: frailty and geriatric syndromes including comorbidities are important risk factors for “poor” QoL among older adults receiving home-based healthcare.

A systematic review of frailty education programs for health care professionals

OBJECTIVES

To identify and examine the reported effectiveness of education programs for health professionals on frailty.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted of articles published up to June 2021, examining the evaluation of frailty training or education programs targeting health professionals/students. The participant demographics, program content and structure, effectiveness assessment methodology and outcomes, as well as participant feedback, were recorded with narrative synthesis of results.

RESULTS

There were nine programs that have evaluated training of health professionals in frailty. These programs varied with respect to intensity, duration, and delivery modality, and targeted a range of health professionals and students. The programs were well-received and found to be effective in increasing frailty knowledge and self-perceived competence in frailty assessment. Common features of successful programs included having multidisciplinary participants, delivering a clinically tailored program and using flexible teaching modalities. Of note, many programs assessed self-perceived efficacy rather than objective changes in patient outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite increasing attention on frailty in clinical practice, this systematic review found that there continues to be limited reporting of frailty training programs.

What do Brazilian health professionals know about the frailty syndrome? A cross-sectional study

Background

The growing care demand for frail older adults and those at risk of frailty in primary health care (PHC) requires professionals trained in the subject to promote adequate care. This study aimed to analyze the self-reported, theoretical and practical knowledge of PHC professionals about the frailty syndrome.

Methods

This is an observational cross-sectional study with a sample of 485 Brazilian health professionals (bachelor’s degree) working in PHC with older adults. An electronic questionnaire was used to collect data on professional characteristics and self-reported, theoretical and practical knowledge concerning frailty phenotype. Agreement analysis between types of knowledge and multivariate logistic regression were performed to show the factors associated with knowledge about frailty.

Results

Theoretical knowledge showed the worse result, with 87.5% of the professionals describing the syndrome incorrectly. Roughly half the professionals self-reported (52.6%) very little/no knowledge concerning the syndrome and demonstrated low practical knowledge (55.1%) when identifying clinical cases. There were misconceptions about the syndrome, like it is natural from the aging process (83.3%) and is synonymous with disability and comorbidity (51.2%). The majority of the professionals were unaware of instruments for assessing frailty (77.9%) and the phenotype criteria (68.2%). No agreement was observed between the types of knowledge. Professionals specialized in or who had taken training courses in older adult health were 6.1 and 2.7-fold more likely, respectively, to self-reported some knowledge on the frailty syndrome.

Conclusions

PHC professionals presented little knowledge on the frailty syndrome. Most professionals were unaware of the frailty definition, its assessments for diagnosis and evidence for its treatment. The lack of knowledge on frailty could affect the care provided to older adults in primary care.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-022-02927-6.

Development and evaluation of an evidence-based, theory-grounded online Clinical Frailty Scale tutorial

INTRODUCTION

Frailty is a robust predictor of adverse outcomes in older people. Practice guidelines recommend routine screening for frailty; however, this does not occur regularly. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is a validated, feasible instrument that can be used in a variety of clinical settings and is associated with many adverse outcomes. Our objective was to develop and evaluate an online training module to guide frailty assessment using the CFS.

METHODS

A multidisciplinary team of clinical experts developed an evidence-based, theory-grounded online training module for users who wished to perform frailty assessment using the CFS. The module was prospectively evaluated for user satisfaction, effectiveness and feasibility using a standardised questionnaire. Qualitative feedback was analysed with thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Version 1 of the CFS module was used 627 times from 21 October 2019 to 24 March 2020. Satisfaction, effectiveness and feasibility of the module were positively rated (≥4/5 on a 5-point Likert scale n = 582 [93%], n = 507, [81%], n = 575, [91%], respectively). Qualitative feedback highlighted ease of use, likelihood of users to share the module with others and opportunities to increase multimedia content.

CONCLUSION

An online tutorial, designed using evidence and theory to guide frailty assessment using the CFS, was positively rated by users. The module's content and structure was rated effective and feasible, and users were satisfied with, and likely to share, the module. Research evaluating the module's impact on the accuracy of frailty assessment is required.

The Relevance and Added Value of Geriatric Medicine (GM): Introducing GM to Non-Geriatricians

Geriatric Medicine (GM) holds a crucial role in promoting health and managing the complex medical, cognitive, social, and psychological issues of older people. However, basic principles of GM, essential for optimizing the care of older people, are commonly unknown or undermined, especially in countries where GM is still under development. This narrative review aims at providing insights into the role of GM to non-geriatrician readers and summarizing the main aspects of the added value of a geriatric approach across the spectrum of healthcare. Health practitioners of all specialties are frequently encountered with clinical conditions, common in older patients (such as cancer, hypertension, delirium, major neurocognitive and mental health disorders, malnutrition, and peri-operative complications), which could be more appropriately managed under the light of the approach of GM. The role of allied health professionals with specialized knowledge and skills in dealing with older people's issues is essential, and a multidisciplinary team is required for the delivery of optimal care in response to the needs and aspirations of older people. Thus, countries should assure the educational background of all health care providers and the specialized health and social care services required to meet the demands of a rapidly aging society.