Limits to deficit accumulation in elderly people

Kenneth Rockwood; Arnold Mitnitski

doi:10.1016/j.mad.2006.01.002

Limits to deficit accumulation in elderly people

Kenneth Rockwood, Arnold Mitnitski

Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

192 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We evaluated limits to the accumulation of deficits (symptoms, diseases, disabilities) for 33,069 people aged 65+ years. We combined deficits in a frailty index (theoretical range 0-1) and found that the 99% limit varied little between samples, representing a frailty index value of about 0.65 ± 0.05. This near-maximum shows no relationship with age. It is the same in community and institutional samples, even though the mean value is much higher in the latter. The data suggest a level of frailty beyond which, even in developed countries, further deficit accumulation is not sustainable.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	494-496
Number of pages	3
Journal	Mechanisms of Ageing and Development
Volume	127
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mad.2006.01.002
Publication status	Published - May 2006

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This analysis was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant MOP 64-169. Kenneth Rockwood is supported by an Investigator Award from the CIHR and by the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation as the Kathryn Allen Weldon Professor of Alzheimer Research.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Ageing
Developmental Biology

PubMed: MeSH publication types

Journal Article

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10.1016/j.mad.2006.01.002

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Limits to deficit accumulation in elderly people

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

PubMed: MeSH publication types

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