| Title |
Older adults’ perceptions and informational needs regarding frailty
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
BMC Geriatrics, February 2018
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12877-018-0741-3 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Nancy L. Schoenborn, Sarah E. Van Pilsum Rasmussen, Qian-Li Xue, Jeremy D. Walston, Mara A. McAdams-Demarco, Dorry L. Segev, Cynthia M. Boyd |
| Abstract |
Frailty has been recognized as an important medical syndrome in older adults. Growing literature supports the clinical application of frailty but US older adults' perceptions of frailty have not been explored. We aim to examine perceptions and informational needs about frailty among older adults. This was a qualitative study involving focus groups of community-dwelling older adults with diverse age and frailty status. We explored participants' beliefs and knowledge about frailty and informational needs about frailty as a medical syndrome. The participants' mean age was 76.3. Of the 29 participants, 21 (72%) were female, and 21 (72%) were white. We identified three major themes: 1) Older adults' perceptions of frailty differed from the definition used in medical literature; they often perceived a psychological component to being frailty and some were skeptical of the syndromic definition based on multiple symptoms. 2) Compared to participants who were non-frail or pre-frail, participants who were frail were more receptive to discussing their frailty status with clinicians; 3) Participants wanted know about how to treat or prevent frailty and the risks associated with being frail. Many participants felt that these information can be conveyed without necessarily using the specific term "frail", which they perceived to have a negative connotation. Older adults, especially those who are frail, may be interested to discuss frailty as a medical syndrome. However, negative perceptions are associated with the term "frail" and may be a barrier to clinical application of frailty. Further research is needed to understand acceptable ways for communicating about frailty in clinical practice. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 22 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 8 | 36% |
| Spain | 3 | 14% |
| Cyprus | 1 | 5% |
| Australia | 1 | 5% |
| Austria | 1 | 5% |
| France | 1 | 5% |
| Unknown | 7 | 32% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 12 | 55% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 6 | 27% |
| Scientists | 4 | 18% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 92 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 92 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 13 | 14% |
| Researcher | 9 | 10% |
| Student > Bachelor | 9 | 10% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 7 | 8% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 7 | 8% |
| Other | 16 | 17% |
| Unknown | 31 | 34% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing and Health Professions | 21 | 23% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 17 | 18% |
| Social Sciences | 7 | 8% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 3 | 3% |
| Psychology | 3 | 3% |
| Other | 9 | 10% |
| Unknown | 32 | 35% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 33. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 May 2018.
All research outputs
#1,203,826
of 25,418,993 outputs
Outputs from BMC Geriatrics
#200
of 3,654 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#29,342
of 455,454 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Geriatrics
#14
of 69 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,418,993 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,654 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.4. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 455,454 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 69 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its contemporaries.