Clinical Interventions in Aging (Feb 2023)
The Association Between the Clinical Frailty Scale and Adverse Health Outcomes in Older Adults in Acute Clinical Settings – A Systematic Review of the Literature
Abstract
Hanna Falk Erhag,1– 3 Gudny Guðnadóttir,3 Joakim Alfredsson,4 Tommy Cederholm,5,6 Niklas Ekerstad,7,8 Dorota Religa,9,10 Bengt Nellgård,11 Katarina Wilhelmson2,3,12 1Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; 2Centre for Ageing and Health (Agecap), University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; 3Region Västra Götaland, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Department of Acute Medicine and Geriatrics, Gothenburg, Sweden; 4Department of Cardiology, and Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Unit of Cardiovascular Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden; 5Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; 6Theme Inflammation and Aging, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; 7Department of Health, Medicine, and Caring Sciences, Unit of Health Care Analysis, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden; 8The Research and Development Unit, NU Hospital Group, Trollhättan, Sweden; 9Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences, and Society, Clinical Geriatrics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; 10Division for Clinical Geriatrics, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; 11Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Institute of Clinical Studies, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; 12Department of Health and Rehabilitation, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenCorrespondence: Hanna Falk Erhag, Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Wallinsgatan 6, Gothenburg, SE 431 41, Sweden, Tel +46 760 476888, Fax +46 31 786 60 77, Email [email protected]: Frail older adults experience higher rates of adverse health outcomes. Therefore, assessing pre-hospital frailty early in the course of care is essential to identify the most vulnerable patients and determine their risk of deterioration. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is a frailty assessment tool that evaluates pre-hospital mobility, energy, physical activity, and function to generate a score that ranges from very fit to terminally ill.Purpose: To synthesize the evidence of the association between the CFS degree and all-cause mortality, all-cause readmission, length of hospital stay, adverse discharge destination, and functional decline in patients > 65 years in acute clinical settings.Design: Systematic review with narrative synthesis.Methods: Electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus) were searched for prospective or retrospective studies reporting a relationship between pre-hospital frailty according to the CFS and the outcomes of interest from database inception to April 2020.Results: Our search yielded 756 articles, of which 29 studies were included in this review (15 were at moderate risk and 14 at low risk of bias). The included studies represented 26 cohorts from 25 countries (N = 44166) published between 2011 and 2020. All included studies showed that pre-hospital frailty according to the CFS is an independent predictor of all adverse health outcomes included in the review.Conclusion: A primary purpose of the CFS is to grade clinically increased risk (i.e. risk stratification). Our results report the accumulated knowledge on the risk-predictive performance of the CFS and highlight the importance of routinely including frailty assessments, such as the CFS, to estimate biological age, improve risk assessments, and assist clinical decision-making in older adults in acute care. Further research into the potential of the CFS and whether implementing the CFS in routine practice will improve care and patients’ quality of life is warranted.Keywords: clinical frailty scale, risk stratification, acute clinical settings, literature review
