Older people view word frail as threat to independence

According to new research commissioned by Age UK and the British Geriatrics Society, using the medical term ‘frailty’ can provoke a strongly negative reaction from older people, because of its associations with loss of independence and end of life. The report, Frailty: Language and Perceptions by leading research agency BritainThinks, reveals that older people prefer to describe their needs in more straightforward terms: they see themselves as starting to struggle with things, or being worried about their health, but not specifically as ‘frail’. The biggest priority for the older people interviewed was staying independent, but they often saw ‘frailty’ as