Background: The Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) is a 15-item scale. It diagnoses frailty in the elderly based on three domains: physical, psychological and social. A Spanish cross-cultural adaptation and its psychometric properties are presented here.
Materials and methods: Independent, non-institutionalized ≥70 year-olds were recruited. The TFI structure was assessed with Kuder-Richardson (KR-20) and confirmatory factor analyses. Sperman´s correlations (rs) with Timed Up-and-Go, Self-assessed-health, Fried criteria, Short Physical Performance Battery, Gerontopole Frailty tool, assessed convergent validity. Known groups' validity and test-retest reliability were tested.
Results: Based on n = 856 participants, domain and total scale KR-20 were <0.70. The social domain and certain physical items did not fit adequately. Most physical and total scalers were 0.31-0.48. Social domain rs were <0.30. The TFI differentiated frail and no-frail subjects, but test-retest variation was considerable.
Discussion: TFI applicability at different social contexts and frailty stages are worth of additional study. Certain scale aspects should be reconsidered.
Keywords: Cross-cultural adaptation; Frail individuals; Patient-reported outcomes; Validation.
Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.