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Construct validity of the Groningen Frailty Indicator established in a large sample of home-dwelling elderly persons: Evidence of stability across age and gender.

background

The primary objective of the present study was to evaluate the validity of the Groningen Frailty Indicator (GFI) in a sample of Dutch elderly persons participating in LifeLines, a large population-based cohort study. Additional aims were to assess differences between frail and non-frail elderly and examine which individual characteristics were associated with frailty.

Methods

By December 2012, 5712 elderly persons were enrolled in LifeLines and complied with the inclusion criteria of the present study. Mann-Whitney U or Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to assess the variability of GFI-scores among elderly subgroups that differed in demographic characteristics, morbidity, obesity, and healthcare utilization. Within subgroups Kruskal-Wallis tests were also used to examine differences in GFI-scores across age groups. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess associations between individual characteristics and frailty.

Results

The GFI discriminated between subgroups: statistically significantly higher GFI-median scores (interquartile range) were found in e.g. males (1 [0-2]), the oldest old (2 [1-3]), in elderly who were single (1 [0-2]), with lower socio economic status (1 [0-3]), with increasing co-morbidity (2 [1-3]), who were obese (2 [1-3]), and used more healthcare (2 [1-4]). Overall age had an independent and statistically significant association with GFI scores. Compared with the non-frail, frail elderly persons experienced statistically significantly more chronic stress and more social/psychological related problems. In the multivariate logistic regression model, psychological morbidity had the strongest association with frailty.

Conclusion

The present study supports the construct validity of the GFI and provides an insight in the characteristics of (non)frail community-dwelling elderly persons participating in LifeLines.

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Cohort study; Construct validity; Frailty; Groningen Frailty Indicator; Measures; Morbidity; Obesity

Year of publication

2015

Journal

Exp Gerontol.

Author(s)

Peters, LL
Boter, H
Burgerhof, JG3
Slaets, JP
Buskens, E.

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