Background The prison population in Scotland is ageing (Scottish Government. Scottish Prison Population statistics 2021–22) with increasing numbers of people in prison with significant health issues. There is a need to better understand and address the needs of people living with frailty in prisons.

Aims To explore the acceptability and feasibility of implementing a frailty screening programme in partnership with the health team at our local prison.

Methods As part of an ongoing frailty project, all people in prison aged 50 or over at our local prison were offered frailty screening between July 2023 and January 2024. Those who accepted were screened for frailty by the prison primary care team using the Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS).

Results 242 people in prison aged 50 or over were offered frailty screening. 210 accepted (87%). Of those screened, 24% were found to have some degree of frailty on the EFS (mild/moderate/severe). 10% of those screened had moderate or severe frailty. Frailty was found in both younger and older cohorts - 39% of those aged 65 and over were frail (n=21) compared to 19% of those aged 50–64 years (n=29). For those found to be moderately or severely frail 50% were under 65 and 50% aged 65 and over.

Conclusion Uptake of frailty screening was high (88%). Almost a quarter of our prison population of over 50s was found to be frail with 10% living with moderate or severe frailty. Frailty screening traditionally looks at those aged 65 or over, but if we had only screened older people in prison, we would have missed 58% of those who were frail which perhaps reflects premature frailty among the prison population.