Original StudyThe Tilburg Frailty Indicator: Psychometric Properties
Section snippets
Study Populations and Data Collection
Two samples of community-dwelling individuals aged 75 years and older were randomly drawn from a register of the municipality in Roosendaal (The Netherlands), a town of 78,000 inhabitants. In Sample 1 (N = 245; 54% response rate) we investigated the construct validity of the TFI using additional measures of frailty, and in Sample 2 (N = 234; 34% response rate) we examined the predictive validity of the TFI using questions on adverse outcomes and quality of life. The proportion of men (0.46) and
Participant Characteristics
See Table 1 for an overview of descriptive statistics of Sample 1 and Sample 2. The t-tests show no statistically significant differences between the 2 samples on determinants of frailty, components of frailty, and quality of life. The mean age was 80.3 and 80.2 years, 55% and 59% were female, 35% and 41% were widowed, respectively, for both samples.
Development of the TFI: Face Validity and Content Validity
The first draft of the TFI was developed on the basis of previous research on frailty.19 This draft was presented to participants at 2 geriatrics
Discussion
We developed a measurement instrument, the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI), for identifying frail community-dwelling older people. The TFI is based on an integral view of human functioning, based on a definition of frailty that excludes disability but includes physical, psychological, and social components of frailty. In the present study the psychometric properties of the TFI were examined in representative samples of Dutch community-dwelling elderly persons.
This study shows that the TFI is a
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The authors have no conflicts of interest.