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Frailty is a strong risk factor for dying prematurely after a kidney transplant, regardless of age, according to a new study. 

The study suggests that patients should be screened for frailty before kidney transplantation and those who are identified as frail should be closely monitored after the procedure. 

"Our results suggest that frail kidney transplant recipients are at twice the risk of mortality even after accounting for important recipient, transplant, and donor characteristics," said lead researcher Dr. McAdams-DeMarco, in the press release. 

"Our findings are important because frailty represents a unique domain of mortality risk that is not captured by recipient, transplant, or donor factors like recipient age, recipient comorbidity, or donor type, for example." She noted that frailty can easily be measured prior to transplantation to identify patients who may benefit from closer monitoring.

The researchers measured frailty in 537 kidney transplant recipients at the time of transplantation. At 5 years, the survival rates were 91.5 percent, 86.0 percent, and 77.5 percent for non-frail, intermediately frail, and frail kidney transplant recipients, respectively, the press release added.

The findings of the study has been published in the American Journal of Transplantation.