The use of frailty questionnaires in inpatients in two neurorehabilitation units in the East Midlands – A cross-sectional cohort study with follow-up to 1-year after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation

Abstract

Background: Frailty correlates with poor clinical outcomes and is not routinely assessed in neurorehabilitation inpatient settings. Methods: We recruited adults from two neurorehabilitation units. We administered six validated tools for assessing frailty and collected data around length of stay, discharge, readmission and change in rehabilitation outcome measures. Results: Seventy-eight participants aged between 31 and 84 years were recruited with a range of neurological diagnoses. Frailty prevalence ranged between 23% and 46%, depending on the scale used, with little agreement between tools. Frailty status did not correlate with age, gender, length of stay, discharge destination and rehabilitation outcome measures. One-year readmission was higher in participants rated as frail by the Frail-Non-Disabled Questionnaire, the FRESH-screening questionnaire and the Clinical Frailty Scale. Conclusion: Frailty ascertainment was variable depending on the tool used. Three frailty indices predicted readmission rate at 1 year but no other outcome measures. Therefore, frailty tools may have limited utility in this clinical population.