Prevalence of Frailty in Nursing Home Residents According to Various Diagnostic Tools.

BACKGROUND Although the theoretical foundations of frailty are well established in the literature, it remains an evolving concept lacking any unique definition or diagnostic criteria for use in clinical practice and epidemiological research. No consensus exists about the accurate prevalence rates of frailty. The various operational definitions of frailty can at least partly explain such discrepancies. OBJECTIVE To compare the prevalence of frailty, measured with different diagnostic tools, among elderly nursing home residents. DESIGN This is an analysis of baseline data collected among the SENIOR (Sample of Nursing home Elderly Individuals: an Observational Research) cohort. SETTING Nursing homes. POPULATION A total of 662 volunteer subjects from 28 nursing homes were included in this analysis. Among them, the mean age was 83.2 ± 8.99 years and 484 (72.5%) of them were women. MEASUREMENT The percentages of frail and non-frail subjects were calculated according to 10 different definitions. RESULTS Prevalence of frailty varies from 1.70% (Frailty Index) to 76.3% (Groningen Frailty Indicator) depending on the tool used. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of frailty is highly dependent on the diagnostic tool used. It would be necessary to reach a consensus on which diagnostic tools to use if one wishes to have comparable data obtained in epidemiological studies.