Índice frágil-VIG: Validez convergente y discriminativa respecto a la Short Physical Performance Battery en población general

Abstract

Background and objectiveStudies of frailty in primary health care (PHC) using frailty indexes are scarce. Frail-VIG index assesses the level of frailty through a multidimensional approach. The main objective was to investigate the convergent and discriminative validity of the frail-VIG index with respect to Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) in general population ≥ 70 years. Population, materials and methodsDescriptive cross-sectional study. We included 416 non-institutionalized patients aged 70 years or over from two lists of general practitioners in a semi-urban healthcare center. Main variables were: frail-VIG index and SPPB. ResultsThe value of the area under the ROC curve of frail-VIG index respect SPPB < 7 was 0.81 (95% CI: 0.76–0.86). Pearson's correlation coefficient was −0.59 (95% CI: −0.524 to −0.649). The mean of frail-VIG index in those classified as not frail by SPPB < 7 was 0.103 (95% CI: 0.094–0.112) and in the frail was 0.242 (95% CI: 0.215–0.269). We obtained significant differences in the mean and distribution of the SPPB according to the frail-VIG index categories.The frailty prevalence according to the frail-VIG index was 29.3% (95% CI: 25.2–33.9), initial 19%, intermediate 7.5% and advanced 2.9%.There were frailty people by frail-VIG index and not by SPPB < 7 the 10.4%; on the contrary the 9.6%, the mean of affected domains of frail-VIG index was 3.9 and 2.2, respectively. ConclusionsThe frail-VIG index presents adequate convergent and discriminative validity with respect to the SPPB that supports the use in PHC. There is a 20% of participants classified as frail in a discordant way, who presents a different profile.