The Frailty Index (FI) identifies Canadians more likely to have difficulty going about day-to-day activities in their communities due to their age, physical limitations, or health (especially conditions that are comorbidities of concern for COVID-19). Governments, health providers, retailers, restaurants, financial services and others can support these residents in running day-to-day errands, having home delivery services available (even as business closures ease) and providing help in understanding what precautions to take to protect themselves from infection. Every six-digit postal code in Canada has a Frailty Index. We included the following measures in this index:
- Population 65 years and older
- Self-reported health as poor or fair
- Self-reported presence of physical limitations
- Physically inactive
- Household income
- Prevalence of COPD, heart disease, cancer, asthma, and diabetes
The Frailty Index is calculated by assigning weights to the variables from Environics Analytics databases CommunityHealth and DemoStats. Frailty is largely a picture of senior populations across Canada, with those having higher disease prevalence scoring more strongly on the FI. Understanding the population that an organization is trying to serve is critical in designing services and communication that will resonate.
Below are some additional resources linked for your reference: release notes, variable list, and metadata.