Frailty vs. Disability Distinctions in People With Intellectual Disabilities

While the extent of research on age‐related frailty among adults in general has increased substantially during the past two decades, there has been a void in equivalent research with respect to adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). While frailty and disability have been seen as different, but overlapping, concepts in the field of ID, the concept of frailty is missing an empirical foundation. The authors define the concept of frailty as applied to adults with ID, using indicators based on Fried's definition (i.e., a physiological state of increased vulnerability to stressors that follows from decreased physiological reserves and dysregulation of a physiological system) and Rockwood's frailty criteria (multisystemic instability, change over time, allowance for heterogeneity, association with aging, and association with an increased risk of adverse outcomes). They developed a frailty questionnaire and tested their concept of frailty against the concept of disability. To do this, frailty‐related data using self‐report and third‐party interviews were collected within the Austrian component of the POMONA II Project using a sample of 190 people with ID aged between 18 and 76 years. Variables in four frailty domains—social, cognitive, physical, and mental health—were assessed and defined as contributing to causal frailty factors. Similarities of the frailty syndrome were analyzed between the general population and the population with ID. The results offer evidence of a “frailty syndrome” affecting older people with ID.