Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Frailty in Older Adults: A Risk Assessment

The recent articles by Kojima et al1,2 on the relationship among social isolation, loneliness, and frailty offer unique insights while at the same time posing new questions. The authors' meta-analysis of prospective studies on social isolation and frailty failed to find a significant association. However, Kojima and colleagues2 did find a significant relationship between loneliness and frailty in older adults with a pooled odds ratio (95% CI) of 1.41 (1.16–1.72).