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OBJECTIVES: To describe the association between frailty and health status, the progression of frailty, and the relationship between frailty and mortality in older men.

DESIGN: Cross‐sectional and prospective cohort study.

SETTING: Six U.S. clinical centers.

PARTICIPANTS: Five thousand nine hundred ninety‐three community‐dwelling men aged 65 and older.

MEASUREMENTS: Frailty was defined as three or more of the following: sarcopenia (low appendicular skeletal mass adjusted for height and body fat), weakness (grip strength), self‐reported exhaustion, low activity level, and slow walking speed. Prefrail men met one or two criteria; robust men had none. Follow‐up averaged 4.7 years.

RESULTS: At baseline, 240 subjects (4.0%) were frail, 2,395 (40.0%) were prefrail, and 3,358 were robust (56.0%). Frail men were less healthy in most measures of self‐reported health than prefrail or robust men. Frailty …