Abstract: Objective: To compare the ability and efficacy of FRAIL-NH Scale and Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) in assessment of frailty in institutional older adults so as to provide guidance for the practice and research on frailty in pension institutions. Methods: A total of 302 older adults in six pension institutions from Changsha were recruited by convenience sampling. Frailty was assessed by the Frailty Index (FI), FRAIL-NH Scale and TFI. General information was collected by a self-designed general information questionnaire. Results: Taking FI as the reference, the areas under the ROC curve for FRAIL-NH and TFI were 0.861 and 0.776 respectively, the difference of area under ROC curve between FRAIL-NH and TFI was 0.085 (Z=3.455, P<0.001). The cut off points for FRAIL-NH and TFI in classifying non-frailty and frailty were 1.5 and 4.5, respectively. The cross-validation accuracy of them were 70.9% and 71.9%, respectively. The prevalence of frailty was 66.6%, 69.5% and 68.5% by the assessment of FI, FRAIL-NH and TFI, respectively. Conclusion: Compared with TFI, FRAIL-NH is more appropriate for the frailty assessment among institutional older adults.

Key words: FRAIL-NH Scale; Tilburg Frailty Indicator; pension institutions; frailty; aged