Development of a frailty scale for elderly people in China

Objective：The aim of this study was to develop a frailty scale for the elderly in China and to examine its reliability and validity.Methods：The method of convenient sampling was used to select 375 elderly individuals in different communities of Tianjin,China.EuroQpl-5D was used to evaluate the criterion validity.Cronbach＇s αcoefficients,correlation analysis,exploratory factor analysis,criterion-related validity,and internal consistency were used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale.To evaluate the test—retest reliability,30 old people were re-evaluated after 2 weeks.Results：The final version of the frailty scale（FI-35） consisted of 35 items.Eleven factors were extracted by a principal factor analysis and varimax rotation,with a cumulative contribution of 86.00%.Eleven dimensions were positively correlated（r = 0.130-0.541,P 〈 0.01）.Cronbach＇s α coefficient was 0.952,and the alpha coefficients of 11 dimensions ranged from 0.730 to 0.992.The test-retest reliability was0.874 for the total scale.The split-half reliability of the scale was 0.808.Structural equation modeling was used to perform a confirmatory factor analysis,and various parameters were all acceptable.Conclusions：FI-35 met the requirement of scale development and showed good reliability and validity;thus,it can be used as an efficient frailty measurement tool for Chinese elderly.