Frailty score

Although I find the NHS app extremely useful, there are some dangers in having access to some medical records without the underpinning knowledge to interpret them properly. I noticed something on a blood test result, did a bit of google research and discovered that I had reduced kidney function. As I take quite a few drugs that can affect my kidneys I was a little concerned. My daughter (NHS doctor) was visiting so I mentioned it to her, she looked at the result in question and laughed. Absolutely what she would expect to see in a reasonably healthy woman of my age. Rockwood 3, yup, can't be any higher as I have an issue with my heart, if I didn't I'd be a 1.
However, she did say something of interest to those of us who are no longer young. Doctors in A&E, ITU doctors etc look at how we present ourselves, our general demeanor and positivity or not. How well do we take care of ourselves etc It can be a guide to how well we cope with illness and surgery and can influence the way we are treated.

Baggs

I was considered called a Vintage Mum(m) – 🥂– by a GP friend after producing DD3 shortly before my 45th birthday. Did I mind. I did not. I was still teaching Scottish dancing in my 39th week and still, according to the same chap, "the best dancer in Oxfordshire".

I think people who mind being 'geriatric' in medical terminology (I'm in that category) must actually feel older than they like to admit because if they felt pretty good for their age, as I do, why would they mind?

I really don't get why people are so hyper-sensitive, so quick to take offence when none is meant. The frailty scale is to help medics assess a person's needs. It's a tool they use. That's all. Take it or leave it.

Baggs
I think your second paragraph sums up the thinking of people who feel insulted by the truth.

Its not about being insulted by the truth, it is about not being consulted or having a proper test done, just a category allocated that may well be incorrect.

I have no problems with having a frailty score, providing it accurately calculated and I am part of the process.

The other problem is that there are two different frailty indices being discussed on this thread.

One is the Rockwood index, which is defined in terms of physical condition and needs and does not discuss the causes.

The other is the eFI, which seems to be based entirely on what medical conditions you have, which is misleading because take something like diabetes, at one end of the scale someone may just be teetering on the edge and not need medication and at the other end may have severe uncontrollable diabetes that makes them very ill. It is patently clear that the level of frailty attached to those two extremes of diabetes would be very different. The same will apply to almost any other medical condition an older person will have.

But I still hold to my belief that, certainly at the start of the scale any score that has been made with out seeing and talking to the person being scored is not worth the compute screen it is shown on.

The other aspect is the accuracy of the medical records somene's frailty index is based on. My medical records show I have had two TIAs. In fact since that diagnosis the first one has been shown, quite unequivocally, to have been a misdiagnosis. The condition I actually had was quite minor and has since been treated so I no longer have it. Severe doubts have also been expressed as to the accuracy of the diagnosis of the second one, for very valid reasons I will not bore your with here.

Presumably any frailty index for me will include the misdiagnosed strokes in the calculation.

petra

Baggs

I was considered called a Vintage Mum(m) – 🥂– by a GP friend after producing DD3 shortly before my 45th birthday. Did I mind. I did not. I was still teaching Scottish dancing in my 39th week and still, according to the same chap, "the best dancer in Oxfordshire".

I think people who mind being 'geriatric' in medical terminology (I'm in that category) must actually feel older than they like to admit because if they felt pretty good for their age, as I do, why would they mind?

I really don't get why people are so hyper-sensitive, so quick to take offence when none is meant. The frailty scale is to help medics assess a person's needs. It's a tool they use. That's all. Take it or leave it.

Baggs
I think your second paragraph sums up the thinking of people who feel insulted by the truth.

I think geriatric is often associated with the word ward ie geriatric ward. Or geriatric doctor.

So it conjures up illness and frailty.

I have no problem with being described as geriatric. That is an expression of a fact. Chronology is all.

Frailty indices seem to be based entirely on opinions or based on information that is incomlete and that is their weakness.

Baggs

I was considered called a Vintage Mum(m) – 🥂– by a GP friend after producing DD3 shortly before my 45th birthday. Did I mind. I did not. I was still teaching Scottish dancing in my 39th week and still, according to the same chap, "the best dancer in Oxfordshire".

I think people who mind being 'geriatric' in medical terminology (I'm in that category) must actually feel older than they like to admit because if they felt pretty good for their age, as I do, why would they mind?

I really don't get why people are so hyper-sensitive, so quick to take offence when none is meant. The frailty scale is to help medics assess a person's needs. It's a tool they use. That's all. Take it or leave it.

I was classified as elderly prima gravida, think that's the spelling but basically elderly first time pregnant woman. I was 39 and it was my 3 rd baby. I was a bit gob smacked but apparently I was treated as a first timer due to a gap of 15 years. I wondered if you could be a born again virgin if you were celibate for long enough. Some time medical terms can be a bit mystifying.

I was described as an elderly prima gravida at 28 when I had my first child. It was the early 1970s and the average age of a new mother was 23. In the new town we lived in, it was even younger.

The midwife used the term and my comment was that I thought I would grow up before I had a child. The midwife looked towards the closed door to the waiting room, and said,' I wish more women would do the same.

Your figure is below frail.

The thing I discovered that I hadn't known before was a note diagnosing me as having "white coat syndrome" (ie, don't expect to get an accurate reading from this patient because she works herself up into a state of utter panic when she catches sight of a doctor). I'd always thought of myself as calm and co-operative, but there you go....
I think medics are having to tick too many "yes I've tested for this" boxes these days in order to satisfy desk-bound NHS advisers. Still, if your score is 0.361 and the lowest "pre-frail" score is 1, I wouldn't worry about it. Just take care of yourself, try to improve your strength & stamina and leave it at that.

On 2 occasions I visited a consultant nurse and the entry on my NHS app began 'Patient speaking in sentences.' I thought it might be part of a Mental Capacity score?

Today none of these entries are available to me on the app!!!

I had an over the phone medication review with a clinician (no idea how qualified she was). When I checked the NHS app a bit later it said my pulse was regular! She must be psychic if she could check my pulse down the phone line! I asked how she could put that when I went for a blood test and the just shrugged. I’ve also been mixed up twice with other patients. Fortunately I found out in good time.

nurse shrugged.

I did raise my eyebrows when I saw the first two questions on the Prisma test:

1. Are you 85 or over?
2. Are you male?

The rest of the questions were about mobility, needing help etc. But what has being male got to do with anything?

More likely to be institutionally helpless.

Talked to the practice manager who had talked to the drs and the severe fragility and fraility index score has been taken off my medical records.

Which shows my practice does listen to their patients and acts on it . Can't fault the health care I get from them . Plus the hospital phoned yesterday and got an appointment at the stroke assessment and rehab clinic on Thursday. Spoke to my neurologist as well yesterday and upped my tablets to help with my stiffness in my limbs .
Brilliant result all round .

That's really interesting as I noticed last week that on 22nd January an entry had been posted on my NHS app by a doctor that I've never seen, it said Moderate Frailty. I've just reached 67 and can walk for miles, I do have a couple of health issues but they don't stop me from doing anything, I think I am fit. I am going to object to this as I think this entry has been put on in error.

Clara talk to your practice and get it removed . Mine was nice about it and it was taken off as I talked to her . I checked straight afterwards and it had been removed.

I always check what has been written about me . This is the first time since I moved here in 2019 I have disagreed with what was written.

Thanks Whiff, I mentioned it to the receptionist and was told to fill in the online form which I will do. I’m glad you got yours removed.

I don’t have anything about fraility test on my app

Looking at the link to the Frailty Score, the icons do indeed appear to be all male!