Table 3 Quotations to illustrate factors influencing frailty

Multiple long term conditions

  • ‘Is there no part of my body that is functioning properly? Eye, heart, back, kidneys, even my foot has an ulcer on it!’ (Participant 8, female, moderately frail, age 70s).

Exhaustion

• ‘I can't walk now. I am so tired so I can't walk or step. I just want to sit, you know.’ (Participant 19, male, mildly frail, age 70s).

Sleep

  • ‘I don't particularly sleep well at night, and I do sleep in the daytime… I go to bed early say about 9 o’clock and then I probably wake up at 12 o’clock having had about 3 hours. And then I am tossing and turning for the rest of the night. I wake up in the morning feeling awful, awful.’ (Participant 15, female, moderately frail, age 80s).

Weakness

  • ‘I can't go out; I just can't go out at all. I have got a walker I can use to go out at weekends but there is no point me using it because the problem is I have got a weak back, weak neck. I just can't stand up long enough to do a cup of tea or walk anywhere. I am not even strong enough to push a walker I just feel I am going to collapse in a heap.’ (Participant 22, female, vulnerable, age 50s).

Pain management

  • ‘I wake up, I take five tablets and my insulin… I keep the antibiotics with me here because they are supposed to be taken either with food or just after so you can't take them at any old time. But the other tablets there is one lot I take in the morning and one lot I take in the evening. The…thyroid people have said 50 g one day, 75 the next. I have got the Clonazepam; I take that every day and Gabapentin…three times a week. And now they have changed my PRN ones…I have got to look every time’ (Participant 8, female, moderately frail, age 70s).

  • ‘The highest painkiller I am allowed is paracetamol. My shoulder was in pain they said alright we will give you ibuprofen gel and it’s like putting face cream on really!’ (Participant 5, male, moderately frail, age 60s).

  • ‘I find erm a bath helps, so warm water, we have an air bath, a jacuzzi. So that helps, being weightless in water, for a while anyway’ (Participant 13, male, vulnerable, age 50s).

Weight loss

  • ‘When I’ve made [some food] it takes me an hour and I’m in absolute bloody agony at the end of it. Then when you taste it the first two mouthfuls are alright but then it’s just really bland and tasteless. My taste buds seem to have gone and you just think I’ve spent all that time and it just wasn’t worth it.’ (Participant 16, male, vulnerable, age 60s).