Overview: The Fit-Frailty App was developed at the Geras Centre for Aging Research at Hamilton Health Sciences (affiliated with McMaster University) by Dr. Courtney Kennedy, Dr. George Ioannidis, Dr. Alexandra Papaioannou, Dr. Jonathan (Rick) Adachi in partnership with Dr. Kenneth Rockwood and the Geriatric Medicine Research Group at Dalhousie University. It is a comprehensive measure of frailty that incorporates disease-related, physical, cognitive, psychosocial, nutrition, and functional aspects. It was designed to streamline frailty assessment and be easily completed with older adults and caregivers. The full, interactive assessment is completed in-person and includes physical performance measures which can identify individuals at risk of sarcopenia in addition to frailty. A virtual version has also been validated that is entirely self-reported and uses proxies for physical performance measures.
Co-Design Approach: The project team worked with patients, families, and front-line clinicians to learn more about their experiences using this new technology and test it in healthcare settings.
Based on Dr. Kenneth Rockwood’s Frailty Index approach, which considers frailty as a multi-dimensional state that exists on a continuum of severity.
References:
(1) Searle SD, Mitnitski A, Gahbauer EA, Gill TM, Rockwood K. A standard procedure for creating a frailty index. BMC Geriatr. 2008 Sep 30;8:24.
(2) Jones DM, Song X, Rockwood K. Operationalizing a frailty index from a standardized comprehensive geriatric assessment. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2004 Nov;52(11):1929-33.
(3) Kennedy CC, Ioannidis G, Rockwood K, Thabane L, Adachi JD, Kirkland S, Pickard LE, Papaioannou A. A Frailty Index predicts 10-year fracture risk in adults age 25 years and older: results from the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos). Osteoporos Int. 2014 Dec;25(12):2825-32.
