FRAILTY DETECTION WITH THE GERONTOPOLE FRAILTY SCREENING TOOL (GFST)

Frailty is commonly regarded as a pre-disability condition of older persons. Its importance in the elderly should be more carefully taken into account in the clinical practice. To implement interventions aimed at preventing disability in frail older adults, screening tools for the early detection of this syndrome are needed. In this context, the Gerontopole Frailty Screening Tool (GFST) has been recently proposed as an instrument for assisting general practitioners in the detection of non-disabled frail older adults. In the present paper, we briefly discuss about the difficulties of translating knowledge from the frailty research field to the clinical practice. Such difficulties are illustrated by presenting the evolution of the GFST over time. The use of frailty screening tools, such as the GFST, in the clinical practice is necessary to support the identification of older persons at risk of adverse events and promote the implementation of individualized strategies against disability.