Addressing social frailty: developing predictive models to support community actors

Project Summary

Social frailty can be defined as the gradual loss of resources and abilities to meet fundamental social demands. It affects up to 20% of community-dwelling older adults and is a precursor of declining well-being, as well as physical and mental health. However, since there is no standardized method to screen for social frailty, it is poorly studied. We thus propose to take advantage of dimension reduction approaches to generate a multivariate indicator of social frailty, while also assessing the respective weight of each specific component. This combined indicator will then be used to predict mental, physical, and cognitive health in the CLSA cohort. Finally, we will hold deliberative workshops with various partners, including community actors and clinicians, to discuss findings in the context of real-world experiences and provide actionable recommendations.