• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.394-405
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to clarify the concept of the frail elderly and to obtain theoretical evidence. The research method was conducted using the basic principles for conceptual analysis of Walker and Avant(2005). As a Result of a review of the literature about how to utilize the concept of a frail elderly, frail elderly might be in the intermediate state of health and disease. They can be defined as physically vulnerable in the sarcopenia, inflammation, insulin resistance, and preceding advanced disease, lead to hospitalization, falls, disability, and death. The attributes were physiological, psychological, and socio-environmental and economic factors, so they had multidimensional factors. They were required the assist daily living of another person. Also, their attributes had decreased the amount of recovery time and degree, and exhaustion. The attributes of frail elderly consisted of these facts: dynamic process, multidimensional factors, dependency, vulnerability. The frail elderly was a dynamic process that involves the possibility of change to health and disease, and include physical, mental, cognitive, and social environmental factors. In addition, the frail elderly was difficulty in daily life, physical vulnerability and difficulty in adaption. In conclusion, frail elderly as defined by the results of this study will contribute to the foundation of health care systems, including community visiting nursing to understand the level of frail elderly and systemic management to do not go into long term care.