Swedish health care professionals' view of frailty in older persons
2012 (English)In: Journal of Applied Gerontology, ISSN 0733-4648, E-ISSN 1552-4523, Vol. 31, no 5, p. 622-640Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Sustainable development
Sustainable Development
Abstract [en]
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.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2012. Vol. 31, no 5, p. 622-640
Keywords [en]
focus groups, frail elderly, qualitative research, article, daily life activity, health care personnel, health personnel attitude, human, nurse, nurse attitude, occupational therapist, occupational therapist attitude, physiotherapist, physiotherapist attitude, social network, social welfare, social worker, social worker attitude
National Category
Gerontology, specialising in Medical and Health Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-54455DOI: 10.1177/0733464810396874ISI: 000308412400003Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84871732923OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-54455DiVA, id: diva2:1590106
2021-09-012021-09-012021-09-05Bibliographically approved