The Validity of The FRAIL Scale in Frailty Screening Among Vietnamese Older People

Abstract

Background/Purpose: A simple and effective frailty screening tool is required for use among older people in outpatient clinics. We aimed to evaluate the validity of the Vietnamese version of the FRAIL-scale (FRAIL-VI) for frailty screening in Vietnam. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Geriatric clinic of Gia Dinh People’s Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Frailty was evaluated using the FRAIL scale and Fried’s criteria. Stata version 14 was used for data analysis. We used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses, the area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values to assess diagnostic accuracy of the FRAIL scale, when compared with Fried’s criteria. Box and Whisker plots were obtained to present the distribution of the FRAIL scores according to Fried’s criteria, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated to examine the correlation between the two tools. Results: The study included 396 participants (mean age of 72.6±7.6, 62.1% female). The optimal cut-off value for the FRAIL scale was ≥2, with 94.7% sensitivity, 85.2% specificity, and a Youden index of 0.799. In ROC analysis, the FRAIL-VI AUC was 0.964 (95% confidence interval: 0.95 – 0.98), when compared with Fried’s criteria. The FRAIL-VI scale had a high positive correlation with Fried’s criteria, with a Pearson’s correlation coefficient of 0.81 ( p <0.001). Conclusion: The FRAIL scale is a valuable frailty screening tool when compared with Fried’s criteria. A cut-off value of ≥2 may be useful in primary care settings.