Improving the Identification of Frailty in Long-Term Care Residents: A Cross-Sectional Study

To compare the capacity of blood myostatin concentration and physical, cognitive, and affective function tests to predict frailty among long-term care (LTC) residents.

This cross-sectional analysis used baseline data from three randomized controlled trials involving 260 older adults in 14 LTC centers. Serum myostatin levels were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Frailty, physical fitness, cognitive and affective functions were assessed using validated tests and scales.

The Timed Up and Go, gait speed, 6-minute walk, and Berg Balance Scale had excellent capabilities in identifying frail individuals in accordance with Fried's Frailty Phenotype (FFP). The best tests for identifying frailty in accordance with the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) were Timed Up and Go and Berg Balance Scale. For the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI), the best tests were Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease (QoL-AD) and Goldberg Anxiety. Myostatin, along with physical, cognitive, and affective function tests, improved the capability of the hand grip, arm-curl, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Goldberg Anxiety, Goldberg Depression, and QoL-AD to identify frailty according to FFP, while myostatin improved CFS-defined frailty identification by the hand grip, arm-curl, 6-minute walk test, Berg Balance Scale, 30-second chair-stand, gait speed, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Goldberg Anxiety, and De Jong-Gierveld Loneliness Scale.

Among LTC residents, serum myostatin was associated with being frail according to FFP and CFS. However, this measure was less discriminating of frailty than physical fitness tests (for FFP and CFS) and affective function parameters (for TFI). However, evaluated concurrently with physical, cognitive, and affective parameters, myostatin improved the capabilities of these measures to predict CFS-defined frailty.