Clinical Frailty Scale: Translation and Cultural Adaptation into the Brazilian Portuguese Language

Frailty is a biological syndrome that causes adverse events in the health of older adults. However, the Clinical Frailty Scale has not yet been culturally adapted and validated into Brazilian Portuguese language.

Our aim was to translate, reproduce and validate the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) for the Brazilian Portuguese language.

An observational cross-sectional study with senior patients was conducted between Jan 2018 and Nov 2018.

Volunteers aged >60 and living in Brazil. The translation and cultural adaptation of the CFS into the Portuguese language, the principles and good practices were followed.

To conduct the validation and determine the reproducibility of an inter-observer evaluation, the patients answered the scale questions in Portuguese on two occasions, delivered by two separate examiners and separated by a 10-minute interval, on their first visit; the 36-item Short Form Survey quality-of-life questionnaire (SF-36) was also applied. Seven days later, a second visit was undertaken to perform an intra-observer reproducibility assessment.

A total of 66 older individuals were enrolled (72 ± 8 years), the majority of which did not present frailty (63.6%) and reported a low physical limitation level in the SF-36. The CFS showed a significant correlation with the SF-36 quality-of-life questionnaire (r= -0.663; p<0.0001) and no statistical difference was observed between intra-rater (p=0.641) and inter-rater (p=0.350) applications, demonstrating the reproducibility and applicability of the instrument. The standard error estimate (SEE) was evaluated and there were no differences between the CFS and the SF-36 (SEE= 1.13 points).

The Brazilian Portuguese language version of the CFS is a valid, reproducible and reliable instrument for evaluating the impact of frailty on the lives of senior patients.