Abstract
Frailty is an important concept in the care of older adults, and there is great interest in incorporating user-friendly frailty assessments into research and clinical settings. In-home, sensor-based technologies may provide a more dynamic, sensitive, and accurate assessment of frailty measures. To investigate user perspectives for use of sensor-based technologies and mobile applications, we held five focus groups with community-dwelling older adults (n= 10), their informal caregivers (n=9), and medical professionals (n=8). We used qualitative inductive analysis to organize thematic content. Caregivers and care-recipients viewed the early identification of frailty as beneficial, but highlighted the need for secure data infrastructure and clear demonstration of how frailty assessment would improve care. They also expressed concerns that technology-based communication could reduce in-person interactions. Medical providers noted the utility of objective data for difficult conversations with caregivers of frail patients, but worried about resources for analyses and interpretation of sensor-based health information.
Highlights
Frailty syndrome disproportionately affects older people, including 15% of non-nursing home population, and is known to be a strong predictor of poor health outcomes
There is a growing interest in incorporating frailty assessment into research and clinical practice, which may provide an opportunity to improve in home frailty assessment and improve doctor patient communication
Our qualitative findings indicate that knowing frailty status is important and useful and would allow older adults to remain independent longer
Summary
Frailty syndrome disproportionately affects older people, including 15% of non-nursing home population, and is known to be a strong predictor of poor health outcomes. There is a growing interest in incorporating frailty assessment into research and clinical practice, which may provide an opportunity to improve in home frailty assessment and improve doctor patient communication
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