Use of a frailty index in end of life care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Can a frailty index be used in routine practice to enhance primary care for frail older adults at the end of life?
IRAS ID
184451
Contact name
Barbara Hanratty
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
As people are living longer, more and more people are dying with frailty. Estimates suggest that between one quarter and one half of all patients aged over 85 years are frail. It is important that health professionals recognise when a patient may be nearing the end of their lives, so that they can talk to them about the sort of care that would prefer, and where they would like to be treated during their final illness. It can be very difficult for a GP to know when a frail older person is likely to die, as their health may have been declining for some time. To help GPs identify and assess the severity of frailty amongst their patients, researchers have put together a simple tool in one of the GP computer systems. An electronic frailty index (eFI) is calculated, using information from patients’ electronic health records. The research in this proposal will look at whether and how the eFI would be useful to help GPs to identify their frail, older patients who may be approaching the end of life.
We have already looked at how the eFI changes in the last few months of life. We now plan to go on to see if the eFI could signal the point at which palliative care should be considered. First, we will examine a selection of patient notes, to see if we can detect any links between the frailty score, GP treatments and current recommendations for palliative care. Second, we will interview GPs to find out if they would find a frailty score easy to understand, and useful in practice. We will use the findings of the research to begin to influence what GPs do on a day-to-day basis, and also to develop future research.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/YH/0501
Date of REC Opinion
8 Dec 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion