Quantifying the impact of frailty in critically ill patients

Frailty is a multidimensional syndrome that is characterised by a decline in body function and systems. Patients with frailty are more likely to have adverse outcomes, such as disabilities and mortality, as well as requiring hospitalisation and long-term care. When patients with frailty are admitted to intensive care, it is important to assess their level of frailty as early possible as this condition poses new challenges in providing optimal care for them. It is also important to ensure that resources are ethically and economically allocated. This thesis has sought to quantify frailty in critically ill patients, including those with severe COVID-19, and explore the timeliness of goals of care for frail critically ill patients to determine the extent to which intensive-care treatments might benefit individual patients.