Social Vulnerability Predicts Frailty: Towards a Distinction between Fragility and Frailty?

Abstract

Poor social status is a risk factor of frailty. From a conceptual point of view, our results claim for a distinction between the concepts of frailty and fragility, the first one being the consequence of an ongoing decline, the other one related to a relatively stable condition of fragility, mainly explained by unfavorable social conditions.