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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Geriatric Medicine
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1465066

Frailty Index, Frailty Phenotype and 6-year mortality trends in the FRASNET Cohort

Provisionally accepted
Sarah Damanti Sarah Damanti 1*Rebecca De Lorenzo Rebecca De Lorenzo 1Lorena Citterio Lorena Citterio 2Laura Zagato Laura Zagato 2Elena Brioni Elena Brioni 2Cristiano Magnaghi Cristiano Magnaghi 2Marco Simonini Marco Simonini 2Mariapia Ruggiero Mariapia Ruggiero 1Simona Santoro Simona Santoro 1Eleonora Senini Eleonora Senini 1Marco Messina Marco Messina 1Francesca Farina Francesca Farina 1Costanza Festorazzi Costanza Festorazzi 1Giordano Vitali Giordano Vitali 2Paolo Manunta Paolo Manunta 1Angelo A. Manfredi Angelo A. Manfredi 1Chiara Lanzani Chiara Lanzani 1Patrizia Rovere Querini Patrizia Rovere Querini 1
  • 1 Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
  • 2 San Raffaele Hospital (IRCCS), Milan, Lombardy, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Frailty, a geriatric syndrome associated with adverse outcomes, lacks a universal definition. No consensus exists on the most effective frailty scale for predicting mortality.Methods: This prospective observational study followed community-dwelling volunteers for six years. Frailty was measured with the Frailty Index (FI) and the Frailty Phenotype (FP).Concordance was assessed using Cohen's Kappa coefficients. Age-and sex-adjusted Cox regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the association with mortality.Results: Out of 1114 participants (median age 72 years, IQR 69 -77), 186 were classified as frail by the FI, 13 by the FP and 48 by both definitions. The concordance between the two measures was fair (κ = 0.26). Thirty-nine individuals died during the follow-up period. The FI showed a stronger association with mortality (HR 75.29, 95% CI 8.12-697.68, p < 0.001) compared to the FP (HR 3.3, 95% CI 1.45-7.51, p = 0.004). Individuals classified as frail by both definitions had the highest mortality risk and the highest FI scores (median 0.36).Definitions of frailty identify different individuals as frail. The FI was more closely related to mortality than the FP. Individuals classified as frail according to both definitions displayed the highest complexity (corresponding also ho higher FI scores) and the greatest mortality. The FI demonstrated a more accurate ability to predict mortality due to its comprehensive nature.

    Keywords: Frailty Index, Frailty Phenotype, Mortality, Community dwelling older people, older people

    Received: 15 Jul 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Damanti, De Lorenzo, Citterio, Zagato, Brioni, Magnaghi, Simonini, Ruggiero, Santoro, Senini, Messina, Farina, Festorazzi, Vitali, Manunta, Manfredi, Lanzani and Rovere Querini. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sarah Damanti, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

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