Validation of the Chinese-Canadian study of health and aging clinical frailty scale (CSHA-CFS) telephone version

This was a cross-sectional validation study of the Chinese-Canadian study of health and aging clinical frailty scale telephone version (CSHA-CFS TV). The study pool consisted of 67 patients of outpatient clinics at a tertiary medical center in Taipei, Taiwan. They were enrolled in the program comprehensive geriatric assessment and the frailty study of elderly patients (CGAFSEP). The Chinese-Canadian study of health and aging clinical frailty scale physician version (CSHA-CFS PV) is a 7-point scale assigned after comprehensive geriatric assessments. Higher score indicates frailer status. The Chinese-Canadian study of health and aging clinical frailty scale (CSHA-CFS) telephone version (TV) included 17 questions adapted from the physician version. Two trained research assistants conducted the telephone interviews. Administration time was <3 min. Standard reliability and validity measures were applied. Three-fifths of the subjects were older than 75 years, and half of them were females. Inter-rater reliability was achieved with weighted kappa of 0.684, (p = 0.002) between first 20 ratings from 2 interviewers. Criterion validity was achieved with weighted kappa of 0.689 (p < 0.0001) and Kendal's tau of 0.612 (p < 0.0001) between the TV and the PV scores. Divergent validity was demonstrated with significant correlation but only fair agreements comparing both TV and PV scores with the cardiovascular health survey (CHS) phenotypic definition of frailty. One could conclude that the CSHA-CFS TV appears to be a quick, reliable, and valid frailty screening instrument for community-dwelling elderly.