Identifying pre-frailty in the elderly could help to avoid disability and consequent loss of independence. A group of researchers used graph theory to unscramble and identify important indicators that lead to frailty.
The AGEING NETWORK (Frailty, disability, depression and cognitive impairment in ageing; untangling complex relationships in the older population) project has used graph theory to construct a framework to show the complex relationships between symptoms and constructs that are important in ageing. Building several networks, the researchers described these processes and assessed intra-individual differences.
Further details: The complex definition of elderly