Frailty as predictor of mortality in acutely admitted elderly patients
Frailty arises due to age-related decline, diseases, malnutrition, and lifestyle and can be assessed using different screening tools. The study of Nygaard et al in the August issue of Danish Medical Journal compares the predictive power of two frequently used frailty screening tools (Fried’s Phenotype (FP) and the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS)) for 90-days mortality in 1030 elderly patients acutely admitted to three Danish hospitals. Frailty was associated with poorer survival and the authors find a slightly more precise predictive power of CFS. However, the accuracy of both screening tools was relatively low, and the authors suggest that the precision could be improved by combining frailty screening with additional clinical or paraclinical assessments.
Original Article 01/08
