Korean Terminology for Frailty

ABSTRACT

"Frailty" in geriatrics is thought to encompass a variety of phenotypes not fully explained by current definitions of disease or disability. In Korea, "frail" has been translated using various meanings and terminologies, for example, weakness, senescence, vulnerable, requiring care, and functional impairment. However, none of these expressions alone fully represents the frailty that we understand as the geriatric syndrome. Further, among the Asian countries that use Chinese characters in their language, different characters are used to express fraility; and again, none of these expressions fully represents frailty. This may suggest some linguistic differences between Asian and Western countries.