Frailty prevalence and agreement between assessment tools in elderly patients of Western India

Abstract

Background: Frailty is a common clinical syndrome in the elderly with increased risk for poor health outcomes manifesting as falls, disabilities, hospitalization, and death. In this study, we measured the prevalence of frailty based on two commonly used tools, i.e., Fried frailty phenotype (FFP) and Edmonton frailty scale (EFS). Furthermore, the agreement between these tools was determined. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 296 patients with age 60 years or more visiting geriatric outpatient department at a tertiary care center in Western India were assessed for frailty using FFP and EFS. The study groups' association is evaluated with the Fisher's test, Student's “t-test”, and Pearson's chi-squared test. Results: A total of 296 patients were assessed with the mean age group of 68.47 ± 5.92 years. There were 151 (51.1%) males and 145 (48.9%) females with the majority of patients from the age group of 60–70 years (68.8%). Total 68 patients (22.9%; males: 55.8%, females: 44.2%) and 50 patients (17%; males and females 50% each) were frail as per FFP and EFS, respectively. There was a statistically significant agreement between FFP and EFS (k = 0.602, P < 0.05). Conclusion: There is a significant agreement between frailty prevalence measured by FFP and EFS. In elderly population, measurement of frailty using these simple tools can be effective in screening and subsequent early interventions to reduce ageing-related mortality and morbidities.

Keywords

• ageing
• edmonton frailty scale
• frailty
• fried frailty phenotype