Identification of Frailty in Chronic Heart Failure

This study sought to report the prevalence of frailty, classification performance, and agreement among 3 frailty assessment tools and 3 screening tools in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients.

Frailty is common in patients with CHF. There are many available frailty tools, but no standard method for evaluating frailty.

We used the following frailty screening tools: the clinical frailty scale (CFS); the Derby frailty index; and the acute frailty network frailty criteria. We used the following frailty assessment tools: the Fried criteria; the Edmonton frailty score; and the Deficit Index.

A total of 467 consecutive ambulatory CHF patients (67% male; median age: 76 years; interquartile range [IQR]: 69 to 82 years; median N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide: 1,156 ng/l [IQR: 469 to 2,463 ng/l]) and 87 control patients (79% male; median age: 73 years; IQR: 69 to 77 years) were studied. The prevalence of frailty using the different tools was higher in CHF patients than in control patients (30% to 52% vs. 2% to 15%, respectively). Frail patients tended to be older, have worse symptoms, higher N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels, and more comorbidities. Of the screening tools, CFS had the strongest correlation and agreement with the assessment tools (correlation coefficient: 0.86 to 0.89, kappa coefficient: 0.65 to 0.72, depending on the frailty assessment tools, all p < 0.001). CFS had the highest sensitivity (87%) and specificity (89%) among screening tools and the lowest misclassification rate (12%) among all 6 frailty tools in identifying frailty according to the standard combined frailty index.

Frailty is common in CHF patients and is associated with increasing age, comorbidities, and severity of heart failure. CFS is a simple screening tool that identifies a similar group using more lengthy assessment tools.