Frailty
Stay Healthy by Avoiding Frailty
One of the best things we can do to stay healthy and remain independent as we age is learn about frailty. Once we understand what frailty is and how we can prevent it, we can take action to remain healthier and more independent.
What is frailty?
Frailty isn’t an illness or disease—it’s what happens when someone’s overall health gradually gets worse.
Frailty can show up as
- Feeling weak
- Losing muscle
- Getting tired easily
- Problems with memory, clear thinking, and concentration
- Problems recovering from setbacks
- Problems doing things you used to be able to do (physically, mentally, and socially)
- Overall decline in how your body and brain function
- Unintentional weight loss
When several things on this list are combined, that is frailty.
Effects of Frailty
Older people with frailty
- Have worse outcomes when they get sick with things like the flu
- Take longer to recover from illness, falls, and injuries
- Are more likely to be hospitalized
- Are more likely to need long term care
- Are more likely to die
Frailty Facts
How to Prevent Frailty
You can’t stop aging, but you can prevent, reverse, or slow frailty. If you don’t take action, frailty typically gets worse, and that can cause serious problems. It means you will be more likely fall, get sick, need to go to hospital, need to move to a care home, and die early.
This website is your guide to preventing frailty. There is so much you can do! But no one is asking you to take this on alone—help is available. Check out the Resources throughout the site to learn about many different types of support.
The acronym AVOID highlights the main ways to prevent frailty
Being active every day will help you stay mobile, flexible, and strong. You can do anything from sports and exercise to fishing to chair yoga or bed exercises.
Vaccines help protect you from getting seriously ill at an age where it’s harder to recover.
Review your medications every year with your health care provider and make sure you are following instructions when you take them.
Being with other people and having friends and family in your life makes you happier and helps you live longer.
Choose healthy foods, including extra protein and vitamin D as you age, and drink enough fluids.
Start with One Simple Step
An effective and easy way to help yourself prevent frailty is to take a Healthy Aging Assessment. Frailty can in fact be measured. The assessment starts with a short quiz. The results will help you and your health care provider to know what you can work on. And then you can take the assessment again in six months and see if the numbers have improved.
Take the Healthy Aging Assessment
Frailty by the Numbers
Over 1.6 Canadians currently live with frailty
Estimates say over 2.5 million Canadians will be living with frailty in 10 years
If no prevention takes place, a person’s level of frailty will go up 4.5% each year and doubles in 15 years
A frailty prevention program which provided free health coaching over the phone showed the following improvements for participants:
Improvement in walking ability
Improvement in balance
Improvement in health
Increase in exercise
Resources
Canadian Frailty Network
- Register for a free frailty assessment and the AVOID Frailty program and find information about health care issues.
- Learn more
Self-Management BC
- This provincial organization offers free health programs for adults of all ages with one or more ongoing health conditions. Programs are offered in person, virtually, online, by telephone, or by mail. Includes programs for Chinese, Indigenous, and Punjabi communities.
- View website
Peer Coaching
- This program, run by Self-Management BC, offers one-on-one coaching using AVOID Frailty strategies to slow down and/or prevent the progression of frailty. Participants will be 65+ years old and live in the Fraser Health area. For more details contact Gurpreet Sandhu at gurpreetsandhu1@uvic.ca or 604-946-0195.
811 BC
- This will connect you to HealthLinkBC’s health service navigators. They can:
- Answer basic health care questions
- Help you find your way around the health care system
- Connect with a registered nurse, registered dietitian, qualified exercise professional, or pharmacist
- Call 8-1-1 (7-1-1 for the deaf and hard of hearing)
- Health advice and information
- 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- Translation services are available in over 130 languages
- For non-emergency situations only
Keeping Our Nlakapamux Elders at Home
- Read about an initiative to keep elders engaged in their community and how it is combatting frailty
- Learn more
Canadian Frailty Network: Indigenous Health
- Information and resources focusing on frailty and Indigenous health
- Learn more