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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Quantitative Psychology and Measurement
Volume 16 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1495733
Development of a psychological frailty index: Results from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study
Provisionally accepted- 1 Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 2 Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- 3 George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States
Objective: Psychological frailty, an emerging concept, lacks a standardized definition, measuring instrument, and empirical evidence in Asian (especially Chinese) populations. An effective instrument to measure psychological frailty should be urgently developed. Therefore, this study aimed to develop and initially validate a Psychological Frailty Index (PFI) based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The study assessed the applicability of the PFI to adverse health outcomes as a secondary aim. Results: Factor analysis of the 15-item PFI extracted four factors of psychological frailty (psychological distress, cognitive decline, physical vulnerability, and memory decline). The PFI demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.764) and criterion validity (rho = 0.806). Psychological frailty was significantly associated with lower life expectancy (odds ratio [OR] 1.98, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.71-2.29), higher outpatient treatments (1.25, 1.03-1.51), and increased hospitalization (1.45, 1.22-1.74).The PFI could be a reliable instrument for identifying psychological frailty. The PFI is a novel tool that measures health indicators of older adults at risk of increased psychological vulnerability, but it requires further validation.
Keywords: Frailty, Psychological frailty, CHARLS database, scale development, Gerontology
Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 16 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Liu, Fernández and Tyrovolas. 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:
Jinlong Zhao, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
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