Frailty is an age-related risk state characterised by multisystem deficits with loss of physiologic reserves, which increase the vulnerability of older adults such that even trivial stressor events can lead to a higher risk of negative health-related outcomes.1 Against the backdrop of population ageing, the prevalence of frailty in community-dwelling older adults in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to increase exponentially from the current reported figures of 3.5% to 27%.2 The incremental effect on ambulatory health expenditure approximates an additional 750 Euros per person per year even for people with the very mildest degree of frailty (sometimes called ‘prefrailty’), and doubles to 1500 Euros per person per year for those with varying degrees of clinically apparent frailty.3 Not surprisingly, the burgeoning number of people living with frailty has been described as an emerging public health priority.
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