BMC Geriatr. 2026 Feb 2. doi: 10.1186/s12877-026-07065-x. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: There is limited evidence on the prevalence of frailty and its impact on health outcomes in older adults with atrial fibrillation (AF) in Vietnam. This study aimed to (1) Compare the agreement of the physical frailty phenotype (Fried's criteria) and the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) in identifying frailty in older adults with AF, and (2) Compare the associations of these frailty definitions with hospitalisation.
METHODS: Adults aged 65 or older with AF attending the outpatient clinics of a hospital in Vietnam. Frailty was defined as having ≥ 3/5 of Fried's criteria or a CFS ≥ 4. All participants were followed up for 9 months, recording hospitalisations. The kappa statistic was used to quantify the agreement between frailty defined by the modified physical frailty phenotype and the CFS. Logistic regression was applied to examine the association between frailty and hospitalisation.
RESULTS: There were 305 participants. They had a mean age of 76.7 (SD 7.8), 40% were female. The prevalence of frailty was 34% according to the modified physical frailty phenotype criteria, and 88% according to the CFS (kappa coefficient 0.14, 95%CI 0.09-0.19). The hospitalisation rate during follow up was 28.8%, higher in frail participants compared to the non-frail. Frailty defined as CFS ≥ 4 was significantly associated with increased hospitalisation (adjusted OR 3.72, 95%CI 1.23-11.31, p = 0.020). A non-significant association was observed with frailty defined by the modified physical frailty phenotype (adjusted OR 1.64, 95%CI 0.95-2.84, p = 0.077). Similar results were obtained when frailty was analysed as a continuous score: adjusted ORs 1.39 (95%CI 1.05-1.83, p = 0.022) for each higher category of the CFS, and 1.24 (95%CI 1.00-1.53, p = 0.051) for each unit higher of of the physical frailty score.
CONCLUSION: Frailty was highly prevalent among older patients with AF. There was a poor agreement between the two frailty criteria when identifying frail and non-frail participants in the cohort using the cut-offs. The CFS had a stronger association with hospitalisations than the modified physical frailty phenotype criteria. Further studies are needed to compare the predictive values of these two frailty definitions in older adults in Vietnam.
PMID:41629793 | DOI:10.1186/s12877-026-07065-x