臺灣老年衰弱症的研究與應用

Research and Application of Geriatric Frailty in Taiwan

臺灣已邁入高齡化社會，為減少長期照護的負擔，在先進國家已將老年衰弱症的診治成為老人失能預防的核心議題。然而老年衰弱症的觀念，在國內尚未普及。有鑑於失能前的診治是屬於老年醫學團隊成員的共同職責，本文從回顧臺灣老年病症候群的文獻複查開始，繼之擬定老年衰弱症的研究架構，進行門診慢性病老人衰弱症與肌少症的長期研究、做為老年照護團隊和周全性評估的實務基礎，進一步具體應用在社區老人和住院老人衰弱症的篩檢與介入，以及政策轉譯方面的建言。本文針對過去研究成果提出簡要報告，以供臨床各專業從事相關研究的參考。

Moving towards aging society in Taiwan, we have to learned from advance western countries to highlight geriatric frailty as one of the core health care issues, in order to lessen more and more long term care burden based on various disable needs. The concept of geriatric frailty so far has not so well known in medical disciplines and health allied professionals of Taiwan. The paper started from literature review all geriatric syndromes in Taiwan, to propose the research framework of frailty for further cohort study of frailty and sarcopenia in ambulatory geriatric patients with chronic diseases, then to carry out its applications in community screening and intervention, prevention of hospital associated disability in geriatric patients admitted with acute diseases . Further knowledge translation into medical education and health policy was introduced. As diagnosis and management of pre-disable conditions of the elderly will be undertaken by all geriatric team members, this review will briefly report the current state of research and application of geriatric frailty we have done as a reference for further studies of geriatric frailty in all clinical disciplines.