“Frailty is a common biological syndrome of aging .”

Principal Investigators:

Jennifer Jakobi

Frailty is a common biological syndrome of aging.  Currently, no universally accepted model or definition of frailty exists.  Clinical frailty identifiers of grip strength, weight loss, low physical activity (kcals), slow walk and exhaustion have been proposed where the presence of three or more of these factors indicates frailty, one or two indicate pre-frailty, and zero indicates non-frail.  Ultimately, the importance of identifying the sub-groups of non-frail and pre-frail older adults is to prevent further decline to frail where loss of functional independence ensues.  The objective of this study is to determine whether muscle activity measured with electromyography (EMG) during daily life, can be used objectively to dissociate the three stages (non-frail, pre-frail, frail) of frailty