Understanding the prevalence, care and management of frailty in care home residents

Description

Aims

The proposed plan of work for this research capacity development focuses on the following research objectives, to:

• understand possibilities for establishing methods to formally identify frailty in care home residents
• determine the feasibility of accessing population-level linked health data to measure frailty prevalence among care home residents
• explore current approaches (and variations in practice) to the care and management of frailty in care home residents
• work with the care home sector and relevant networks to develop acceptable and relevant questions for future research that will contribute to the care sector.

Method

The plan of work involves two work packages (WP):

WP1:Working collaboratively with ResearchOne to understand the potential of administrative health data sets for exploring the prevalence, care and management of frailty
in care homes. This will support me in addressing Objectives 1 and 2.

WP2: Working with the care home sector and relevant networks to understand the care and management of frailty in care home residents and determine priorities for future research. This will enable me to address Objectives 3 and 4. I will use qualitative methods to explore management of frailty in care home residents. 

Background

Frailty is a long term condition associated with ageing in which an accumulation of health deficits make an individual vulnerable to catastrophic health decline following an illness. Health interventions and social care supports can be put in place to support a person living with frailty to maintain independent living in the community. Groups such as the British Geriatric Society have endorsed recommendations for the management of frailty in community-dwelling individuals.

Care homes serve a section of the population within which frailty is likely to be common, yet understanding of the national prevalence, care and management of frailty among care home residents is not well documented in the UK. An awareness of the prevalence of frailty among care home residents in the UK would contribute to our understanding of the scope of this health problem. Further, understanding how care homes support the needs of residents with frailty will help determine whether current frailty management guidelines are relevant to the care home context and the support that should be in place to improve care and management of frailty in care home residents to promote quality of life for individuals.

People

Principal Investigator:
Dr Louise Schreuders, University of Leeds

Mentors:
Professor Karen Spilsbury, University of Leeds
Professor Barbara Hanratty, University of Newcastle

Funding body: Funded by NIHR School for Social Care Research, Building Research Capacity in Adult Social Care Award(£20,000)

Contact: Dr Louise Schreuders, University of Leeds