Frailty Screening and Pre-habilitation in Older Spine Patients – Reversing the Effects of Sedentary Life-styles to Improve Surgical Outcomes for Older Patients and Reduce Healthcare Costs

Abstract

Over the last century daily life for Homo Sapiens has become considerably easier, particularly for those individuals living in western industrialized societies. A combination of technological advances, including factory automation, farm machinery, labor saving devices for the home, the automobile, telephones, television and computers has allowed us to become steadily more productive. At the same time these innovations have made our species much more sedentary, obese and prone to a variety of chronic degenerative diseases which put a considerable financial burden on the health care system [1].