EXERCISE: AN IMPORTANT KEY TO PREVENT PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE FRAILTY

The life expectancy of older individuals continues to increase with persons aged 70 years and more representing the fastest growing proportion of the western population (1). At the same time, this extended life should involve the preservation of autonomy through the maintenance of physical and cognitive function. However, with normal aging, people will develop frailty. Thus, identifying cost-effective interventions, which prevent frailty, is one of the most important challenges of health care systems. The difficulty in developing specific interventions to prevent or delay frailty is due to the complexity of the phenomenon, which involves many different physiological, cognitive, and psychological systems. Because no single manifestation of frailty can encompass the whole of the symptoms or signs present, consensual exercise training guidelines remain paradoxically difficult. Therefore, the aim of this review is to address an overview of the literature regarding the effect of exercise/physical activity in the prevention of physical and cognitive frailty.