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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 24|pp 24623—24632

The reliability, validity, and sensitivity of the Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS) in older adults with foot disorders

Emmanuel Navarro-Flores1, Ricardo Becerro de Bengoa Vallejo2, Marta Elena Losa-Iglesias3, Patricia Palomo-López4, César Calvo-Lobo2, Daniel López-López5, Eva Maria Martínez-Jiménez6, Carlos Romero-Morales7
  • 1Faculty of Nursing and Podiatry, Department of Nursing, University of Valencia, Frailty Research Organized Group (FROG), Valencia, Spain
  • 2School of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Podiatry, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 3Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
  • 4University Center of Plasencia, Universidad de Extremadura, Plasencia, Spain
  • 5Research, Health and Podiatry Group, Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Nursing and Podiatry, Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, Spain
  • 6Antonio Nebrija University, Madrid, Spain
  • 7Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid, Spain
Received: July 21, 2020Accepted: October 8, 2020Published: December 21, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.202140

Copyright: © 2020 Navarro-Flores et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS) is an index employed to measure alterations related to frailty. The main objective in this research was to develop the EFS short-form (EFS-SF) and to evaluate its validity, reliability, and sensitivity to predict frailty disability outcomes in elderly patients with foot disabilities.

Results: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the EFS-SF revealed the presence of three components, as in the original EFA. There were significant differences (p < 0.05) in the study population for several of the EFS and 5-item FRAIL scale indicators. The highest correlation (Pearson R = 0.871; p < 0.001) was found for the first component of the EFS-SF. Finally, the Cronbach alpha was 0.864 which indicated a high level of internal consistency.

Conclusion: The EFS-SF is a reliable and valid instrument to measure frailty in patients with and without foot disabilities.

Method: A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out. The study population was aged over 60 years (n = 66) and comprised 29 men and 37 women. Frailty disorders were registered by using the EFS, 5-item FRAIL scale, and the Geriatricians’ Clinical Impression of Frailty (GCIF) scale. EFA was employed to locate potential constituents of the EFS, with scores ranging from 0.596 to 0.946 for each of the sub scales: (1) cognitive and general health status; (2) medication and nutrition status; and (3) functional and physiological status, thus revealing that the EFS-SF comprised three components, a reduction compared to the nine in the original EFS.