Abstract
BackgroundThe Frail-VIG frailty index has been developed recently. It is an instrument with a multidimensional approach and a pragmatic purpose that allows rapid and efficient assessment of the degree of frailty in the context of clinical practice. Our aim was to investigate the convergent and discriminative validity of the Frail-VIG frailty index with regard to EQ-5D-3L value.MethodsWe carried out a cross-sectional study in two Primary Health Care (PHC) centres of the Catalan Institute of Health (Institut Català de la Salut), Barcelona (Spain) from February 2017 to January 2019. Participants in the study were all people included under a home care programme during the study period. No exclusion criteria were applied. We used the EQ-5D-3L to measure Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and the Frail-VIG index to measure frailty. Trained PHC nurses administered both instruments during face-to-face assessments in a participant’s home during usual care. The relationships between both instruments were examined using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression analyses.ResultsFour hundred and twelve participants were included in this study. Frail-VIG score and EQ-5D-3L value were negatively correlated (r = − 0.510; P < 0.001). Non-frail people reported a substantially better HRQoL than people with moderate and severe frailty. EQ-5D-3L value declined significantly as the Frail-VIG index score increased.ConclusionsFrail-VIG index demonstrated a convergent validity with the EQ-5D-3L value. Its discriminative validity was optimal, as their scores showed an excellent capacity to differentiate between people with better and worse HRQoL. These findings provide additional pieces of evidence for construct validity of the Frail-VIG index.
Highlights
The Frail-VIG frailty index has been developed recently
The worst of these profiles was most prevalent among people with severe frailty, while the best was more frequent among nonfrailty people
Its discriminative validity was optimal, as their scores showed an excellent capacity to differentiate between people with better and worse Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL)
Summary
The Frail-VIG frailty index has been developed recently It is an instrument with a multidimensional approach and a pragmatic purpose that allows rapid and efficient assessment of the degree of frailty in the context of clinical practice. Frailty is defined as “a clinical state in which there is an increase in an individual’s vulnerability to develop negative health-related events (including disability, hospitalizations, institutionalizations, and death) when exposed to endogenous or exogenous stressors” [3]. It is a complex and multidimensional concept for which there are numerous and multiple operational definitions. Hypothesis testing for construct validity studies is carried out because of the difficulty in assessing criterion validity
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