The integration of frailty into the clinical practice: preliminary results from the Gerontopole of Toulouse, France

We present here the Platform for Evaluation of Frailty and Prevention of Disability recently established within the Gerontopole of Toulouse in collaboration with the Department of General Medicine. The description of the first 160 patients show that the mean age of our population is 82.7 years, with a large majority aged >= 75 years. Most are women (61.9%). Slightly over 66% receive assistance, generally domestic (51.9%). Only 14.1% receive old age allowance. Regarding level of frailty, 65 patients (41.4%) are pre-frail and 83 (52.9%) are frail. Regarding functional capacity, 83.9% have a gait speed of < 1 meter/sec, 53.8% are sedentary and 57.7% have decreased muscle strength. Only 27.2% have good SPPB performances. Regarding cognitive function, 33.1% (n=41) of individuals have an MMSE score <= 24. Mild dementia was observed in 11, 6% of subjects and a mild cognitive decline but real type MCI in 65.8%. Autonomy for the core activities (ADL) is preserved (ADL score = 5.6 +/- 0.8) as expected, we are not at the stage of disability. Against, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) are already disturbed, IADL = 6.0 +/- 2.3 for a normal score of 8/8. Numerous patients have visual problems (76.4% for distance vision and 10.4% with an Amsler grid disturbed) and only 13% have a hearing disability. The visit to the platform could well afford to objectify a state of protein-energy malnutrition in 9% of patients, an early alteration of nutritional status in 34% and a deficiency of vitamin D for most of the sample (94.9%).