Frailty Identification in Prehospital Care: A Scoping Review of the Literature

Abstract

Abdullah Alshibani,1– 3 Meshal Alharbi,1,2 Simon Conroy4 1Emergency Medical Services Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 2King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 3Department of Health Sciences, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK; 4MRC Lifelong Health & Ageing Unit, University College London, London, UKCorrespondence: Abdullah Alshibani, Emergency Medical Services Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, 14611, Saudi Arabia, Email [email protected]: The proportion of older adults is increasing worldwide. Frailty assessment in prehospital care was suggested to improve triage decisions and paramedics’ judgment. This study aimed to assess the scope and nature of available evidence around frailty identification in prehospital care. A systematic search of the literature was performed using MEDLINE, SCOPUS, CINHAL, and Web of Science to identify relevant articles published from January 2022 downwards. A list of indexed terms and their associated alternatives were pre-determined. Of the 71 identified and reviewed articles after removing duplicates, six articles were included in the review. Due to the heterogeneity of the included articles, the findings were described narratively. The findings of this review showed that the available evidence is limited and heterogenic. Two themes emerged from the findings of the included articles: 1) Paramedics’ Perceptions about Frailty Assessment in Prehospital Care and 2) Frailty Scores for Application in Prehospital Care. Paramedics recognised frailty assessment in pre-hospital care to be feasible and important. They highlighted the need for a simple and clear frailty score that could be used and mentioned to other healthcare professionals when handing over patients. Six frailty scores were reported to be used in prehospital care. The evidence around each frailty score is very limited. Overall, frailty assessment in prehospital care was shown to be important and feasible. Different frailty scores have been assessed for use in prehospital care. Further research investigating frailty identification in prehospital care is needed.Keywords: aging consumers, narrative analysis, health and well-being, paramedic*, emergency, older

Keywords

• aging consumers
• narrative analysis
• health and well-being
• paramedic*
• emergency
• older.