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Swedish Health Care Professionals' View of Frailty in Older Persons

Gustafsson, Susanne ; Edberg, Anna-Karin LU and Dahlin-Ivanoff, Synneve (2012) In Journal of Applied Gerontology 31(5). p.622-640
Abstract
There is a paucity of research literature concerning frailty in older persons from the health care professionals' perspective. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to elucidate health care professionals' view of frailty in older persons. An explorative, qualitative design was selected and four focus groups comprising 21 health care professionals were conducted, audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed. Frailty was found to consist of seven dimensions: "being bodily weak and ill," "being negatively influenced by personal qualities," "lacking balance in everyday activities," "being dependent in everyday life," "not being considered important," "being hindered by the physical milieu and defective community service," and "having... (More)
There is a paucity of research literature concerning frailty in older persons from the health care professionals' perspective. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to elucidate health care professionals' view of frailty in older persons. An explorative, qualitative design was selected and four focus groups comprising 21 health care professionals were conducted, audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed. Frailty was found to consist of seven dimensions: "being bodily weak and ill," "being negatively influenced by personal qualities," "lacking balance in everyday activities," "being dependent in everyday life," "not being considered important," "being hindered by the physical milieu and defective community service," and "having an inadequate social network." The results showed that health care professionals' view of frailty in older persons differed from the current state of knowledge on frailty. This implies that the seven dimensions found to constitute frailty could contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the concept. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
frail elderly, focus groups, qualitative research
in
Journal of Applied Gerontology
volume
31
issue
5
pages
622 - 640
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • wos:000308412400003
  • scopus:84871732923
ISSN
1552-4523
DOI
10.1177/0733464810396874
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: The Vårdal Institute (016540000)
id
65f48821-9a2e-4584-b26e-8aa0c8919072 (old id 3146779)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:46:55
date last changed
2022-04-14 03:05:22
@article{65f48821-9a2e-4584-b26e-8aa0c8919072,
  abstract     = {{There is a paucity of research literature concerning frailty in older persons from the health care professionals' perspective. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to elucidate health care professionals' view of frailty in older persons. An explorative, qualitative design was selected and four focus groups comprising 21 health care professionals were conducted, audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed. Frailty was found to consist of seven dimensions: "being bodily weak and ill," "being negatively influenced by personal qualities," "lacking balance in everyday activities," "being dependent in everyday life," "not being considered important," "being hindered by the physical milieu and defective community service," and "having an inadequate social network." The results showed that health care professionals' view of frailty in older persons differed from the current state of knowledge on frailty. This implies that the seven dimensions found to constitute frailty could contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the concept.}},
  author       = {{Gustafsson, Susanne and Edberg, Anna-Karin and Dahlin-Ivanoff, Synneve}},
  issn         = {{1552-4523}},
  keywords     = {{frail elderly; focus groups; qualitative research}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{622--640}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Journal of Applied Gerontology}},
  title        = {{Swedish Health Care Professionals' View of Frailty in Older Persons}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0733464810396874}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/0733464810396874}},
  volume       = {{31}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}