Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Frailty

Frailty is a clinically recognisable geriatric syndrome characterised by diminished physiological reserve and reduced resistance to stressors, leaving affected individuals vulnerable to disproportionate declines in health following minor insults. It is typically operationalised either as a phenotype defined by unint…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 12 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 38× across the literature 🔖 ISSN 2578-8590 🗓 Reviewed July 2026

Overview

Frailty is a clinically recognisable geriatric syndrome characterised by diminished physiological reserve and reduced resistance to stressors, leaving affected individuals vulnerable to disproportionate declines in health following minor insults. It is typically operationalised either as a phenotype defined by unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, weakness, slow gait speed, and low physical activity, or as an accumulation of deficits expressed through a frailty index. The underlying biology is multisystem, involving sarcopenia and loss of muscle strength, immune dysregulation and chronic low-grade inflammation, neuroendocrine changes, and impaired energy metabolism, producing a state distinct from but overlapping with disability and multimorbidity. Frailty predicts adverse outcomes including falls, hospitalisation, functional dependence, and mortality, and is central to risk stratification in older surgical, oncological, and chronically ill populations. The peer-reviewed research gathered here engages these dimensions directly, examining the relationship between frailty and the immune system, its intersection with osteoarthritis, HIV, post-acute COVID-19 syndromes, and cancer in older adults, and the use of measures such as hand-grip strength for nutritional and functional assessment. Further work addresses the bidirectional links between frailty and fear of falling, hip fracture, muscle dysfunction, and nutrition. This body of literature reflects the syndrome's standing as a unifying construct in ageing research and a target for preventive and rehabilitative intervention.

Research published in this journal

12 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

2017

Frailty and the Immune System

Wilson DaisyCorresponding author
Institute of Ageing and Inflammation, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK, B15 2GW
Exact topic Aging Research And Healthcare Cited by 19 doi:10.14302/issn.2474-7785.jarh-17-1578
2021

Fear of Falls and Frailty: Cause or Consequence or Both?

Marks RayCorresponding author
Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Exact topic Aging Research And Healthcare Cited by 4 doi:10.14302/issn.2474-7785.jarh-21-4041

How this research is being cited

The 12 articles above have been cited 38 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Frailty, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in International Physiology Journal (ISSN 2578-8590).

Journal editorial board
Carola Forster · Germany Ricardo J Fernandes · Portugal Alicja Kuban-Jankowska · Poland

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.