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Giving voice to older adults living with frailty and their family caregivers: engagement of older adults living with frailty in research, health care decision making, and in health policy

Overview of attention for article published in Research Involvement and Engagement, June 2016
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (90th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (72nd percentile)

Mentioned by

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32 X users

Citations

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86 Dimensions

Readers on

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226 Mendeley
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Title
Giving voice to older adults living with frailty and their family caregivers: engagement of older adults living with frailty in research, health care decision making, and in health policy
Published in
Research Involvement and Engagement, June 2016
DOI 10.1186/s40900-016-0038-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Jayna Holroyd-Leduc, Joyce Resin, Lisa Ashley, Doris Barwich, Jacobi Elliott, Paul Huras, France Légaré, Megan Mahoney, Alies Maybee, Heather McNeil, Daryl Pullman, Richard Sawatzky, Paul Stolee, John Muscedere

Abstract

The paper discusses engaging older adults living with frailty and their family caregivers. Frailty is a state that puts an individual at a higher risk for poor health outcomes and death. Understanding whether a person is frail is important because treatment and health care choices for someone living with frailty may be different from someone who is not (i.e., who is fit). In this review, we discuss strategies and hurdles for engaging older adults living with frailty across three settings: research, health and social care, and policy. We developed this review using published literature, expert opinion, and stakeholder input (including citizens). Engaging frail older individuals will be challenging because of their vulnerable health state - but it can be done. Points of consideration specific to engaging this vulnerable population include:In any setting, family caregivers (defined to include family, friends, and other social support systems) play an important role in engaging and empowering older adults living with frailtyEngagement opportunities need to be flexible (e.g., location, time, type)Incentivizing engagement for researchers and citizens (financial and otherwise) may be necessaryThe education and training of citizens, health and social care providers, and researchers on engagement practicesPatient-centered care approaches should consider the specific needs of individuals living with frailty including end-of-life care and advanced care planningInfluencing policy can occur in many ways including participating at institutional, regional, provincial or national committees that relate to health and social care. Older adults are the fastest growing segment of Canada's population resulting in an increased number of individuals living with frailty. Although aging and frailty are not synonymous the proportion of those who are frail increases with age. Frailty is not defined by a single condition, but rather a health state characterized by an increased risk of physical, mental, or social decline, deterioration of health status, and death. Recognizing frailty is important because earlier detection allows for program implementation focused on prevention and management to reduce future hospitalization, improve outcomes, and enhance vitality and quality of life. Even though older adults living with frailty are significant users of health care resources, their input is under-represented in research, health care decision making, and health policy formulation. As such, engaging older adults living with frailty and their family caregivers is not only an ethical imperative, but their input is particularly important as health and social care systems evolve from single-illness focused to those that account for the complex and chronic needs that accompany frailty. In this review, we summarize existing literature on engaging older adults living with frailty and their family caregivers across three settings: research, health and social care, and policy. We discuss strategies and barriers to engagement, and ethical and cultural factors and implications. Although this review is mainly focused on Canada it is likely to be broadly applicable to many of the health systems in the developed world where aging and frailty pose important challenges.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 32 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 226 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
Australia 1 <1%
Unknown 224 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 39 17%
Researcher 29 13%
Student > Master 24 11%
Student > Bachelor 17 8%
Other 14 6%
Other 36 16%
Unknown 67 30%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Nursing and Health Professions 50 22%
Medicine and Dentistry 40 18%
Social Sciences 21 9%
Psychology 12 5%
Computer Science 3 1%
Other 25 11%
Unknown 75 33%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 20. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 October 2017.
All research outputs
#1,870,564
of 25,432,721 outputs
Outputs from Research Involvement and Engagement
#169
of 513 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#33,736
of 368,558 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Research Involvement and Engagement
#4
of 11 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,432,721 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 513 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 67% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 368,558 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 11 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 72% of its contemporaries.