Population screening, monitoring and surveillance for frailty: three systematic reviews and a grey literature review

Abstract

Introduction: Little is known about programmes or interventions for the screening, monitoring and surveillance of frailty at population level.

Methods: Three systematic searches and an opportunistic grey literature review from the countries participating in the ADVANTAGE Joint Action were performed.

Results: Three studies reported local interventions to screen for frailty, two of them using a two-step screening and assessment method and one including monitoring activities. Another paper reviewed both providers' and participants' experiences of screening activities. Three on-going European projects and population-screening programmes in primary care await evaluation. An electronic Frailty Index for use with patients' primary care records has been recently validated. No study described systematic processes for the surveillance of frailty.

Conclusions: There is insufficient evidence for the effectiveness of population-level screening, monitoring and surveillance of frailty. Development and evaluation of community-based two-step programmes including those that incorporate electronic health records, particularly in primary care, are now needed.