Frailty: a marker of biological age

Matteo Cesari
UOSD Geriatria, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano
Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e di Comunità, Università di Milano, Milano


Frailty is defined as a clinical state characterized by a decrease of an individual's homeostatic reserves. It is responsible for enhanced vulnerability to endogenous and/or exogenous stressors. Such a condition of extreme vulnerability exposes individuals to an increased risk of negative health-related outcomes. Among the multiple operational definitions of frailty currently available in the literature, the model based on the age-related accumulation of deficits (the so-called Frailty Index) seems of special interest. In this presentation, the characteristics and potential of this model are presented. In particular, its use as marker of biological age to be applied across multiple research fields will be discussed.