{"title":"Frailty as a breakthrough point for multimorbidity management among older adults: challenges and opportunities in China","authors":"Xunliang Tong, Jian Xu, Enying Gong, Xinyue Zhang, Yanming Li, Ruitai Shao, Huan Xi","doi":"10.1136/bmj-2023-076767","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Huan Xi and colleagues argue that tailored strategies are needed to seamlessly integrate frailty assessment into multimorbidity management, thereby promoting a shift towards a health oriented management approach The global population is undergoing a profound demographic transition characterised by a substantial increase in both the absolute number and the proportion of older people. China’s ageing population has been especially in the spotlight. One recent projection suggests a twofold escalation in the percentage of people aged 60 years and older in China—an increase from 168 million people, 12.4% of the entire population, in 2010 to 402 million, 28% of the population, by 2040.1 As people age, the risk of functional decline and multimorbidity increases. Multimorbidity, defined by the World Health Organization as the concurrent presence of two or more chronic conditions in an individual,2 affects a significant proportion of the global population at a pooled prevalence of 42.4%.3 This prevalence increases markedly with age, ranging from 30% among middle aged people to 82% among those aged 85 and above.4 In addition to multiple chronic conditions, frailty poses another concern for the older population. According to WHO, frailty is characterised as a clinically recognisable state with increased vulnerability resulting from age associated declines in physiological reserve and function across multiple organ systems.5 A recent review, synthesising data from 240 studies in 62 countries and territories, reported a global weighted prevalence of frailty of 10.7% among people aged 65 and over.6 Both multimorbidity and frailty affect the health of the older population in China, emphasising the importance of improving their health status in addition to multimorbidity management. Thus, to tackle the growing challenge of multimorbidity, this analysis highlights the importance of considering frailty as a critical breakthrough point for multimorbidity management; describes the current global landscapes of …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The BMJ","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-076767","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Huan Xi and colleagues argue that tailored strategies are needed to seamlessly integrate frailty assessment into multimorbidity management, thereby promoting a shift towards a health oriented management approach The global population is undergoing a profound demographic transition characterised by a substantial increase in both the absolute number and the proportion of older people. China’s ageing population has been especially in the spotlight. One recent projection suggests a twofold escalation in the percentage of people aged 60 years and older in China—an increase from 168 million people, 12.4% of the entire population, in 2010 to 402 million, 28% of the population, by 2040.1 As people age, the risk of functional decline and multimorbidity increases. Multimorbidity, defined by the World Health Organization as the concurrent presence of two or more chronic conditions in an individual,2 affects a significant proportion of the global population at a pooled prevalence of 42.4%.3 This prevalence increases markedly with age, ranging from 30% among middle aged people to 82% among those aged 85 and above.4 In addition to multiple chronic conditions, frailty poses another concern for the older population. According to WHO, frailty is characterised as a clinically recognisable state with increased vulnerability resulting from age associated declines in physiological reserve and function across multiple organ systems.5 A recent review, synthesising data from 240 studies in 62 countries and territories, reported a global weighted prevalence of frailty of 10.7% among people aged 65 and over.6 Both multimorbidity and frailty affect the health of the older population in China, emphasising the importance of improving their health status in addition to multimorbidity management. Thus, to tackle the growing challenge of multimorbidity, this analysis highlights the importance of considering frailty as a critical breakthrough point for multimorbidity management; describes the current global landscapes of …