Frailty: identification and assessment

Electronic Frailty Index (eFI) uses routinely collected data from primary care electronic record systems, to identify biological, psychosocial, and social deficits and assess the frailty prevalence in a population.

This is vital for health and social care strategy planning and can help you identify who in your local population may be frail.

However, it cannot be directly applied to an individual. 

Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is a nine-point scale that summarises an older person’s overall level of fitness or frailty. It provides a baseline which enables professionals to plan someone’s care.

Edmonton Frail Scale comprises of nine domains, against which a clinician scores each individual to determine their level of frailty.

Gait Speed Test assesses someone’s functional mobility by timing how long it takes them to walk four metres.

Proactive Identification Guidance (PIG), developed by the Gold Standards Framework, supports earlier identification of patients nearing the end of their life.

PRISMA consists of seven questions that can be self-completed by an individual or completed by a health care professional. A score of greater than three is considered to identify frailty.

Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICTTM) helps clinicians identify people with deteriorating health due to advanced conditions.

Timed Up and Go Test (TUGT) measures the time it takes someone to stand up from a standard chair, walk 3 metres, turn, walk back to the chair, and sit down.

An older adult that takes 12 seconds or more to complete the TUGT is said to be at risk of falling. It might not be practical to carry out a TUGT in a home setting.