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Open research questions in Frailty in Older Adults

979 gap statements mined from Frailty in Older Adults papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 4,762 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • The study highlights the need for larger and more homogeneous cohorts to validate the findings.

    Functional Mobility as a Prognostic Marker in Geriatric Oncology: A Prospective Study Using Gait Speed · 2026 · DOI

  • The study aims to address this gap by evaluating and comparing the predictive ability of four distinct frailty indices.

    Longitudinal comparison of existing frailty indices to predict complications following adult spinal deformity surgery · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of specificity in conventional frailty tools for Parkinson's disease patients. The biological mechanisms underlying frailty are not fully understood. There is a need for frailty-sensitive prescribing in Parkinson's disease treatment.

    Frailty in Parkinson’s disease: time to integrate it into treatment decision-making? · 2026 · DOI

  • The research highlights the need for personalized treatment strategies in older adults with colon cancer. The study notes the variable predictive performance of commonly used frailty tools.

    Biological frailty and chemotherapy dose intensity independently predict survival in older adults with Stage II–III colon cancer · 2026 · DOI

  • The temporal associations between frailty and postoperative symptom burden remain unclear. Prior studies have not examined the longitudinal associations between frailty and symptom burden using the Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model.

    Longitudinal Interaction Between Frailty and Postoperative Symptom Burden in Older Adults Undergoing Colorectal Cancer Surgery: A Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model Study · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of understanding of the specific relationships between urban resource accessibility and healthy aging outcomes. Prior studies have not adequately addressed the methodological challenges of measuring spatial accessibility to urban resources. There is a need for studies that examine the association between spatial accessibility to urban resources and healthy aging in older adults.

    GIS-Based Spatial Accessibility to Urban Resources and Healthy Aging: Environmental Exposure Assessment of Frailty, Cognition, and Polypharmacy in Older Adults · 2026 · DOI

  • Current clinical approaches for diabetes risk assessment have limitations. Longitudinal trajectories of muscle strength and walking speed have not been fully explored for diabetes risk prediction.

    Beyond functional disability: longitudinal joint trajectories of muscle strength and walking speed and their association with new-onset diabetes risk among older adults without ADL impairment · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of clinical trials or substantial evidence to suggest what level of glycaemic control is best in frail older people with diabetes. The choice of hypoglycaemic therapy in frail older people with diabetes is not well established.

    Practical Considerations in the Management of Frail Older People with Diabetes · 2025 · DOI

  • The limited use of tools to predict the 'revolving door' phenomenon of rehospitalization among older patients after discharge. The need for an objective tool to assess the risk of rehospitalization and mortality among older patients. The lack of studies evaluating the effectiveness of the BRASS Scale in identifying older patients at risk of difficult discharge and hospital readmission.

    Revolving Door in Older Patients: An Observational Study of Risk Assessment of Rehospitalization Using the BRASS Scale · 2025 · DOI

  • However, little is known about sex effects on physical function after elastic-band training with diabetes education.

    Impact of Biological Sex on Physical Function After 16-Week Elastic-band Resistance Training Along With Diabetes Education in Older Men and Women With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Frailty · 2026 · DOI

  • Factors potentially contributing to suboptimal intervention implementation were lacking administrative and collegial support, system integration, geriatric competence and local ownership, as well as cancer nurses facing challenging working conditions.

    Primary care implementation of a cross-sector geriatric assessment with management intervention for older patients undergoing radiotherapy · 2026 · DOI

  • Tool choice should match the assessment's purpose, and future studies should cover under-researched settings such as hospitals and nursing homes.

    Frailty assessment instruments used among Iranian older adults: A scoping review · 2026 · DOI

  • While frailty is a recognized risk factor, evidence regarding the protective association of multidimensional resilience trajectories remains insufficient.

    Dynamic frailty trajectories, multidimensional resilience, and risk of incident hip fracture: A prospective cohort study with competing risk analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • The 30-second Chair Stand Test (30s-CST) provides a repetition-based measure of lower-extremity performance, but its distribution across the broader adult lifespan, particularly in younger adults, remains insufficiently characterized.

    Age- and sex-related distribution of 30-second chair stand test performance across adulthood: Findings from the INSPIRE-T cohort · 2026 · DOI

  • Their prognostic behavior across different clinical settings, however, remains uncertain.

    External validation and cross-center transportability of phenotypic age acceleration and laboratory frailty for postoperative mortality prediction: a dual-center cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • Oral frailty (OF) is increasingly recognized as a critical component of healthy aging, yet the lack of standardized assessment instruments hinders clinical implementation and comparative research.

    Oral Frailty Assessments for Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Methodological Evaluation · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on hospital-based validation, responsiveness assessment, and cross-cultural refinement of oral frailty instruments to improve generalizability and support a unified core outcome set.

    Oral Frailty Assessments for Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Methodological Evaluation · 2026 · DOI

  • Although the associations between frailty and nutrition have been reported, no studies have focused on frailty recovery in relation to dietary diversity.

    Association between frailty recovery and dietary variety among community-dwelling older Japanese adults: a longitudinal study from 2023 to 2024 · 2026 · DOI

  • However, its association with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in stable coronary artery disease (SCAD) remains unclear.

    Association between accelerated biological aging and major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronary artery disease · 2026 · DOI

  • While blood pressure, pulse rate, and body weight are linked to frailty, the influence of long-term variability in these physiological measures on frailty has not been fully elucidated.

    Long-term variability in physiological measures and risk of frailty: evidence from two cohort studies · 2026 · DOI

  • However, the relationship between PA and surgery-associated biological aging remains unclear.

    Surgery-associated accelerated biological aging: Evidence from a cross-sectional study · 2026 · DOI

  • Validation of the findings in larger and more homogeneous cohorts. Investigation of gait speed in relation to other clinical outcomes. Exploration of the use of gait speed as a prognostic marker in other cancer types.

    Functional Mobility as a Prognostic Marker in Geriatric Oncology: A Prospective Study Using Gait Speed · 2026 · DOI

  • Validation of emerging biomarkers remains limited - The literature on frailty in PD is still limited - Frailty tools lack specificity in the PD…

    Frailty in Parkinson’s disease: time to integrate it into treatment decision-making? · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigating the use of PAA and FI-Lab in other clinical settings, - Developing stronger or differently specified clinical prediction models, - Examining the potential benefits of combining PAA and FI-Lab with other biomarkers or clinical…

    External validation and cross-center transportability of phenotypic age acceleration and laboratory frailty for postoperative mortality prediction: a dual-center cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • Most of the available studies are either cross-sectional or retrospective, describing association rather than causation in glycaemia and frailty - Dementia, which could be a confounding factor, was the driving factor for care need in patients with low HbA1c in one study - Malnutrition could be the underlying factor in the relationship between low glycaemia…

    Practical Considerations in the Management of Frail Older People with Diabetes · 2025 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Frailty in Older Adults

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) There is a lack of specificity in conventional frailty tools for Parkinson's disease patients (“Frailty in Parkinson’s disease: time to integrate it into treatment…”, 2026); (2) The temporal associations between frailty and postoperative symptom burden remain unclear (“Longitudinal Interaction Between Frailty and Postoperative Symptom Burden in…”, 2026); (3) There is a lack of understanding of the specific relationships between urban resource accessibility and healthy aging outcomes (“GIS-Based Spatial Accessibility to Urban Resources and Healthy Aging:…”, 2026); (4) Longitudinal trajectories of muscle strength and walking speed have not been fully explored for diabetes risk prediction (“Beyond functional disability: longitudinal joint trajectories of muscle…”, 2026); (5) Little is known about sex effects on physical function after elastic-band training with diabetes education (“Impact of Biological Sex on Physical Function After 16-Week Elastic-band…”, 2026). 979 gap statements have been mined from Frailty in Older Adults papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 4,762 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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