Background: Life expectancy has increased dramatically in Ireland over the last 30 years. However, not everyone is benefiting equally; while some continue to lead healthy and active lives well into their 90s, others are experiencing frailty much earlier. We aim to explore how socioeconomic situation (SES) in Ireland affects age of onset of frailty. Through a novel approach combining hospital data, geographical information and area level Census data, we aim to uncover the social determinants of frailty, and related factors such as multimorbidity and requirement for residential care, with a view to informing policy, health service planning and addressing this inequality – the “frailty gap”.
Objective: To evaluate the age of frailty onset nationally, examine contribution of geographic and SES factors, provide maps of need for use specifically for planning the intergated care programme for older people, with a view to addressing this inequality.
Study Population and Methods:
A national geospatial cross-sectional analysis – combining small area-based census data and frailty indices generated from in-patient acute hospital (HIPE) discharge
data will be used for both the geospatial and the epidemiological analyses. This project brings together experts across multiple disciplines, including public health, the National Centre for Geocomputation, clincial geriatric medicine, The HSE integrated care programme for older people & social policy.
Impact:
Illustration of the problem of SES-related inequality of frailty prevalence
In-depth analysis of the specific determinants (individual/geographical)
National maps showing inequality, frailty and consequences (for planning relevant to Integrated Care Programme for Older People & Sláintecare
Metrics to measure social inequality in aging, which will allow for continuous monitoring of changes and additionally to measure impact of interventions to address inequality.