The significant increase in scientific research on frailty has led to important advances in understanding pathophysiological mecha-nisms and their impact on human aging. Associated with a variety of conceptual frameworks, diagnostic tools for detecting frailty have rapidly multiplied, many investigating risk prior to medical or surgical interventions, others considering long-term complex care planning.1
Despite these advances, frailty assessment is still quite incipient in geriatric clinical practice and even more insufficient in primary health care.2 In this issue of Geriatrics, Gerontology and Aging (GGA), readers will find an interesting exploratory analysis of the association between frailty, anthropometric variables and functional capacity in older adults living in the com-munity and in nursing homes.3
Although certain barriers might explain our low national rate of routine fragility assessment,1,4 this problem has not yet been sufficiently investigated. Moreover, major international regulatory agencies (the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency) do not yet recognize frailty as an outcome or indication for pharmacological or non-pharmacological interventions, which means that frailty is not eligible for reimbursement by health systems, and some regulatory bodies are still reluctant to approve clinical trials that consider frailty as a result.5
