The Dynamics of Frailty in Older People

In the context of reduced resources and rising demand for unplanned care, the delivery of appropriate services to support people with frailty will be key to providing cost-effective, quality care for older people. There is recognition of an evidence gap in relation to the planning, commissioning and delivery of services for older people living with frailty. Questions remain about the incidence and prevalence different levels of frailty and the consequences for health outcomes, health and care service use and costs. In this study, the investigators will explore the incidence and prevalence, development and impact of frailty within the population using retrospective primary care data on patients aged 50 and over in 2006 within the database. The investigators will stratify the cohort by severity of frailty and explore frailty status over time, determining incidence, prevalence and progression of frailty. The relationships between factors such as age, deprivation, ethnicity, location and comorbidities of individuals in relation to development of, and deterioration in, frailty status will be examined. The influence of frailty on outcomes, service use and costs will be explored. These analyses will be used to inform the development of a prototype simulation model, which will use a System Dynamics (SD) based approach to explore the development and impact of frailty in the population and likely future scenarios over a 10-year timeframe. Finally, 'what if' scenarios developed with the stakeholder engagement group will be explored via simulation modelling.