Prevalence and postdischarge outcomes associated with frailty in medical inpatients: Impact of different frailty definitions

Abstract

We compared prevalence estimates and prognostication if frailty were defined using the face-to-face Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) or the administrative-data-derived Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS). We evaluated 489 adults from a prospective cohort study of medical patients being discharged back to the community; 276 (56%) were deemed frail (214 [44%] on the HFRS and 161 [33%] on the CFS), but only 99 (20%) met both frailty definitions (kappa 0.24, 95% CI 0.16-0.33). Patients classified as frail on the CFS exhibited significantly higher 30-day readmission/death rates, 19% versus 10% for those not frail (aOR [adjusted odds ratio] 2.53, 95% CI 1.40-4.57) and 21% versus 6% for those aged >65 years (aOR 4.31, 95% CI 1.80-10.31). Patients with HFRS-defined frailty exhibited higher 30-day readmission/death rates that were not statistically significant (16% vs 11%, aOR 1.62 [95% CI 0.95-2.75] in all adults and 14% vs 11%, aOR 1.24 [95% CI 0.58-2.83] in those aged >65 years).