BACKGROUND: The experience of homelessness has been associated with premature ageing and an earlier onset of geriatric syndromes. Identification of frailty and appropriate intervention, may help improve health outcomes for people experiencing homelessness (PEH). This review aimed to identify prevalence, use of screening tools and risk factors for frailty in PEH.

METHOD: A systematic review, conducted and reported following the PRISMA checklist, was undertaken investigating the prevalence and risk factors of frailty among PEH. Searches were conducted in Ovid MEDLINE, PsycInfo, Web of Science and CINAHL from inception to July 2024. A meta-analysis examining prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty was completed with a narrative synthesis of related risk factors.

RESULTS: A total of 1672 articles were screened for eligibility and 11 studies were included, containing 1017 participants from seven countries. Six different screening tools were employed to detect frailty in the included studies. The range of frailty prevalence was 16-70 % and pre-frailty prevalence was 18-60 %. The pooled frailty prevalence from studies employing the Fried Criteria was 39 % (95 % CI 15-66); the Clinical Frailty Scale: 37 % (95 % CI 24-51); the Edmonton Frailty Scale: 53 % (95 % CI 44-63); and the Tilburg Fraily Indicator: 31 % (95 % CI 8-60). High heterogeneity was observed between the studies. Identified risk factors for developing frailty in PEH included being female, increased years spent homeless, and drug addiction.

CONCLUSION: This study highlights a high prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty in PEH. The identified risk factors illustrate potential areas to target interventions to reverse frailty. Future research should focus on the role of screening for frailty in PEH and developing appropriate frailty detection tools in this group.