Abstract
The increased average life expectancy, not followed by an increase in healthy life years,
results in a growing prevalence of frailty, with a significant change in the health needs of
the population. Consequently, frailty can be considered an important threat to public
health that can be labeled as the future cornerstone of public health. The purpose of this
paper is to provide an overview of the concept of frailty that shows how public health
language, logic and tools should intervene in the definition of frailty and the related
health needs in order to promote a deeper knowledge of the considered condition, its
prevention and its management at the individual and population level.
Social and environmental determinants of health get a relevant role according to the
biopsychosocial definition of frailty. In fact following this approach this condition is
reported as multidimensional syndrome. For this reason, different screening and
evaluation tools have been developed to investigate the different domains and to allow an
early identification of this condition which is essential to help patients in regaining
functionality and in the prevention of associated negative outcomes. n addition to these individual assessment systems, from a public health perspective, it is
also necessary to have risk stratification tools that can read and evaluate the whole
population in order to plan and organize services intended for a community. The
characterization of the need for health of the "frail" people does not require a univocal
definition that fits all health and social contexts, but rather a sharing among all
professionals about the ways to define and recognize frailty according to a
multidimensional approach. The training lever represents a qualifying element for Public
Health to develop policies, programs and interventions intended for all professional
actors involved in the treatment of frailty as well as for patients and their caregivers. The
participation of the caregivers and of the community represents a key element for
developing adequate responses in a perspective of participatory prevention. Therefore, it
is essential that primary care and public health professionals as well organizations act
synergically at fragile individual and population level according to a "life-course" and
"patient-centered" approach.
Titolo tradotto del contributo | [Autom. eng. transl.] [Fragility in a Public Health perspective: principles and tools for a "life course" approach prevention- oriented] |
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Lingua originale | Italian |
pagine (da-a) | 381-403 |
Numero di pagine | 23 |
Rivista | IGIENE E SANITÀ PUBBLICA |
Volume | 77 |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2021 |
Keywords
- Fragility
- Humans
- Public Health
- SARS-CoV-2