A Comparison of Patient Self-Reported Fatigue in the FRAIL Scale With a Validated Fatigue Measure

Area of Science:

• Geriatric Medicine
• Clinical Assessment Tools
• Frailty Research

Background:

• The FRAIL scale is a widely used self-administered tool for screening frailty.
• Concerns exist regarding the subjectivity and accuracy of patient-reported fatigue within the FRAIL scale.
• This study addresses the reliability of the FRAIL scale's fatigue component.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the performance of the FRAIL scale's patient-reported fatigue measure.
• To compare the FRAIL scale's fatigue item against a validated measure, the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS).
• To determine the accuracy of the FRAIL scale's fatigue screening in older adults.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study was conducted with 126 participants aged 55 and older.
• Participants completed the FRAIL scale and the FSS via interview or in person.
• Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and AUC were calculated using FSS as the gold standard.

Main Results:

• The prevalence of fatigue was 24% (FSS) and 34.6% (FRAIL scale).
• Patient-reported fatigue from the FRAIL scale demonstrated a sensitivity of 0.67, specificity of 0.75, and AUC of 0.71.
• Depression and self-reported fatigue were significantly associated with FSS-measured fatigue.

Conclusions:

• Patient-reported fatigue in the FRAIL scale generally correlates with validated fatigue measures.
• The findings support the continued use of the FRAIL scale for frailty assessment in clinical practice.
• The FRAIL scale is a reliable tool for identifying fatigue as part of frailty screening.