Application of CSHA Frailty Index and Clinical Frailty Scale in Geriatric Assessment of Elderly Males in China

People at an advanced age often live with multiple chronic diseases as well as disabilities. To access the health condition of elderly persons, various models have been used in developed countries in the West. However, it is not known how these models apply to the elderly in Asian developing countries. This study investigated the application of the Clinical Frailty Scale-09, a widely used method in patient assessment in Western countries, to older adults living in mainland China. Two hundred and ten elderly males were assessed for their health conditions using a list of variables by the Canadian Study of Health and Aging to construct the 70-item CSHA Frailty Index. The obtained Frailty Indices were compared with the scores of The Clinical Frailty Scale-09 for the same sample group. The assessment revealed the changing pattern in the health condition of the sampled population. Compared to the group aged 65-74 years old, the Frailty Index and the Clinical Frailty Scale increased in the groups aged 75-84 and 85-89 years old. The greatest increase was in the group aged ≥90 years old. The scores of the Frailty Index and the Clinical Frailty Scale-09 correlate with each other. These findings suggest that the Frailty Index and Clinical Frailty Scale-09 provide reliable assessment of the health condition of elderly Chinese males.