Dementia Frailty And Aging

The number of older subjects is rapidly increasingly worldwide. As a consequence, the nature of clinical conditions is also changing. Traditional medicine and models of care have been based on the evaluation and treatment of single and usually acute conditions occurring in relatively young individuals. Today, the usual clinical manifestation of diseases is characterized by multiple and often chronic conditions affecting older people. In this scenario, frailty and dementia have been triggering special interest both in research and clinical settings due to their high prevalence, impact on the individual’s quality of life, and consequences for public health worldwide. These conditions aptly reflect the complexity of age-related pathological conditions, finding as causal factor a myriad of heterogeneous, interacting, and often still unclear pathophysiological processes. Indeed, their study is strongly affected by the difficulty to differentiate the effects of a normal aging process from eventual pathological deviations of the underlying systems. Their occurrence and trajectories over time are strongly affected by a wide array of factors and determinants that can be hardly attributed to the deficit/involvement of single biological systems and/or health domains. Moreover, environment and social factors also play a key role in the determination of phenotypes. The present Research Topic is aimed at widening our understanding of the frailty and dementia phenomena occurring with aging, in order to improve the clinical and public health approaches to these burdening conditions.

Frailty represents an important challenge for aging populations. As a concept it is full of 'known unknowns' such as which mechanisms lead to frailty and how it is best managed. In order to examine these circumstances, the new science of understanding and managing frailty requires an appropriate framing of the problem. This publication investigates the biology and management of frailty and its social aspects. It considers these and related questions: How can we recognize frailty? How does an understanding of frailty increase our comprehension of the aging process? What are its implications for health care systems, including primary care, hospitals and rehabilitation? How will a growing number of frail older adults affect society more generally? The book focuses on frailty as a state of vulnerability, which is related to aging, but which can occur across the life course, and aims to improve the life of frail people and those around them. The book is highly recommended to researchers in aging, health science researchers, health care professionals and anyone interested in the understanding of the aging process.

The progressive growth in the number of older adults worldwide has led to a modification of the current healthcare scenario and a parallel increase in the use of public resources. In this book, we propose a conceptual framework within which aging, frailty, and care are analyzed through the lens of complexity medicine. Therefore, we present a multidimensional perspective that takes into account biomedical, (neuro)psychological, and socio-ecological vulnerability. The theses presented are the result of an inductive approach, based on many years of experience in the field, which has made it possible to identify strategies for frailty recognition and effective responses even in complicated clinical settings. The book is intended to be a tool of concrete and easy consultation, rich in reflections and suggestions.

A groundbreaking exploration of the sociology of dementia — with contributions from distinguished international scholars and practitioners. Organised around the four themes of personhood, care, social representations and social differentiation Provides a critical look at dementia and demonstrates how sociology and other disciplines can help us understand its social context as well as the challenges it poses Contributing authors explore the social terrain, responding in part, to Paul Higgs’ and Chris Gilleard’s highly influential work on ageing Breaks new ground in giving specific attention to the social and cultural dimensions of responses to dementia

2 A Public Health Framework for Thinking about Aging -- Aging and Senescence -- Biomarkers of Aging -- Phenotypes of ""Frailty"" and ""Successful Aging""--Aging and Disability: Reassessment of the WHO Model -- Aging and ""Social Age"" -- True or False? -- When Does Old Age Begin? -- Summary -- 3 Public Health and the Demography of Aging -- Epidemiologic Transition I: Declining Death Rates across the Life Span -- Epidemiologic Transition II: Increasing Life Expectancy -- Epidemiologic Transition III: Population Aging -- Aging and Risk of Death.

Frailty is a condition/phenotype of decreased functional capacities across multiple bio-physiological indicators as a person ages. Older adults, in many instances, can suffer from frailty syndromes and their consequence of poor health, including e.g. increased risk of falls, disabled mobility, etc. The appropriate characterization of frailty and its related physical and mental components is thus of great importance to help predict the risk of frailty syndromes, and to optimize management and rehabilitation programs. The ultimate goals is to minimize the burden of frailty in older adults. The frailty syndromes are generally measured by using different established protocols, such as Fried’s Frailty Criteria, and conceptualized by simply accumulating the measured syndromes. Recent research works have shown that frailty not only arises from diminished physical function, but also from multiple other types of functional decline, such as cognitive impairment, and abnormalities in vascular system (e.g., hypertension). Moreover, these conditions are not distinct or isolated from each other, but closely interact and interconnected. These interactions may play critical roles in the development of frailty. Therefore, it is worthwhile to re-conceptualize “frailty” by implementing advanced technologies to measure the characteristics of functions that are pertaining to frailty, and to explore the inter-relationships between them. Thus, we can discover novel indicators to predict frailty and can develop novel strategies to optimize the management and rehabilitation of frailty. The overall goal of this research topic is to share and discuss recent achievements on understanding the pathology of frailty and its related bio-physiological characteristics, to identify novel indicators that can help predict the incidence of frailty, and to help optimize strategies for the prevention and management of frailty in aging population.

This supplement to the journal, International Psychogeriatrics introduces the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, one of the largest epidemiologic studies of dementia conducted to date. A comprehensive description of the study methods and data sets as well as selected results are discussed.