Evaluating a Pragmatic Strength Alternative for Frailty Measurement and Assessing Its Predictive Capacity Against Established Frailty Instruments in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Authors' conclusion
Each frailty measure predicted adverse health outcomes, with phenotypic and patient-reported measures predicting falls and the deficit accumulation model predicting hospitalization days.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (mean ± SD age 64.5 ± 11.7 years, 73% male, 69% White)
- Participants
- 143 patients
- Exposure
- Four frailty instruments (Fried-STS, Fried-HGS, Veterans Affairs Frailty Index (VA-FI), FRAIL Scale) compared for agreement and prediction of poor health outcomes
- Outcome
- Proportion categorised as frail, by instrument
- Follow-up
- Baseline
Methodological detailsfrailty measured at baseline with four instruments, one-year follow-up, ordinal logistic or logistic regression adjusted for age and sex
- Frailty measured at baseline with four instruments
- One-year follow-up
- Ordinal logistic or logistic regression adjusted for age and sex
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Agreement between frailty instruments poor (κ)
- 0.07-0.31
- Agreement between Fried-STS and Fried-HGS (κ)
- 0.62
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | aOR | P value |
|---|---|---|
| Days hospitalized (none, one to three, more than three) · one-year follow-upFrail vs not frail by VA-FI · adjusted for age and sex | 5.21 | P = 0.017 |
Falls (none, one, more than one) · one-year follow-up
- Frailty by Fried-STS, Fried-HGS and FRAIL Scale associated with falls (aORs, P < 0.05)
- 3.83-9.54
- Adjusted for age and sex
Composite of incident fall, hospitalization or death · one-year follow-up
- Frailty by Fried-STS, VA-FI and FRAIL Scale associated with higher odds (aORs, P < 0.05)
- 2.93-7.25
- Adjusted for age and sex
Original publication
Evaluating a Pragmatic Strength Alternative for Frailty Measurement and Assessing Its Predictive Capacity Against Established Frailty Instruments in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). Published 7 March 2026. doi:10.
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