Development of a frailty scale for elderly people in China

Xiao-Hong Zhang; Yang Yang; Chun-Mei Zhang; Ru-Zhen Luo; Yan-Hui Liu

摘要：Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a frailty scale for the elderly in China and to examine its reliability and validity.Methods: The method of convenient sampling was used to select 375 elderly individuals in different communities of Tianjin, China. EuroQol-5D was used to evaluate the criterion validity. Cronbach's α coefficients, correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, criterion-related validity, and internal consistency were used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale. To evaluate the test-retest reliability, 30 old people were re-evaluated after 2 weeks.Results: The final version of the frailty scale (FI-35) consisted of 35 items. Eleven factors were extracted by a principal factor analysis and varimax rotation, with a cumulative contribution of 86.00%. Eleven dimensions were positively correlated (r = 0.130-0.541, P < 0.01). Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.952,and the alpha coefficients of 11 dimensions ranged from 0.730 to 0.992. The test-retest reliability was 0.874 for the total scale. The split-half reliability of the scale was 0.808. Structural equation modeling was used to perform a confirmatory factor analysis, and various parameters were all acceptable.Conclusions: FI-35 met the requirement of scale development and showed good reliability and validity;thus, it can be used as an efficient frailty measurement tool for Chinese elderly.