Abstract
Early detection of frailty may prevent or delay adverse health outcomes in community-dwelling older adults. In Portugal, there are currently no valid multidimensional frailty screening tools. SUNFRAIL is a user-friendly multidimensional tool for frailty screening that can be used in primary care. Aims: (i) to determine the validity and reliability of the European Portuguese version of the SUNFRAIL tool for use in community-dwelling older adults; (ii) to assess the screening capacity of this version of SUNFRAIL using Fried’s phenotypic model criteria for frailty as a reference test. Methods: Cross-sectional pilot study in a convenience sample of 128 community-dwelling older adults. Objective and subjective data were collected. Internal consistency, concurrent validity, sensitivity, and specificity (ROC curve analysis) were examined. Results: Internal consistency was low. Significant moderate to strong correlations were found between different domains and the total score. The differences between robust, pre-frail, and frail older adults were significant. SUNFRAIL was also correlated with multimorbidity. Sensitivity and specificity were satisfactory. Conclusions: The European Portuguese version of the SUNFRAIL tool is a promising frailty screening tool for community-dwelling older adults to be routinely used in clinical practice. However, more consistent results on its validity and reliability are needed to be used nationwide.
Highlights
The current COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges for active and healthy aging [1]
Recent studies [2,3,4] have shown that the measures applied to contain the coronavirus spread resulted in a relevant decrease in older adults’ physical activity, which negatively impacted their subjective well-being
This cross-sectional study was conducted in a convenience sample of 128 communitydwelling older adults recruited by family nurses in cultural and sports associations, municipal services, and health and day centers in Portugal’s central region
Summary
The current COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges for active and healthy aging [1]. Community-dwelling older adults are more vulnerable and exposed to negative outcomes, and they have been forced to change their active and healthy aging habits. Geriatric care clinical settings face a marked increase in demands for effective treatment of age-related clinical conditions, striving to provide personalized and timely comprehensive care. These demands are challenging even in normal times due to the high rates of multimorbidity in advanced age [5,6,7], which have become much more pronounced over the past year because the health systems’ resources had to be carefully distributed in line with pandemic-related priorities.
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