Issues in Frailty

EPI 517 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

While frailty is not a medical diagnosis and has no accepted definition, it is a key and growing concern in geriatric care and research in older adults. This course will examine the thematic issues related to frailty, including the idea of frailty as the consequence of failure to compensate for physiological stress in aging adults. The sessions will start with theme of failure to compensate and how this results in frailty as an outcome and quality of life, with a focus on methodological issues. The following sessions will present geriatric syndromes thought to derive from failure to compensate for physiological stress including delirium, sarcopenia or loss of muscle, fractures and falls, and failure in the musculoskeletal system. The impact of methodological issues, and interpretation and conclusions drawn from research in geriatric epidemiology will be emphasized. This 7-week survey course has no formal prerequisites, but some epidemiologic background or an understanding of basic epidemiologic principals is strongly recommended.

Students outside of HSPH must request instructor permission to enroll in this course