Individualization of the frail elderly people and use of health care services

The challenge of identifying frail elderly subjects is important to optimize the management of care for the old patients. The recognition of frailty allows clinicians to detect subjects whose autonomy is precarious in relation to decreased physical performances andor vulnerability of their psychosocial stability. A better distinction of healthy old people from frail elderly in an emergency ward makes possible to target the medical care toward the individuals who are more likely to benefit from it and to work out the best strategies of prevention. However, assessment of frailty is time-consuming and there is no consensus on the diagnostic measures. Brief tools to assess the principal components of frailty, which could be included in the routine clinical examination of people over 75 years of age, are currently in progress of validation.